Q & A with Dave Foley
Tagger Review with Dave Foley - Cratloe, University of Limerick & Ardscoil Ris Performance Analyst
Introducing Dave Foley
When Tagger was first launched back in late 2022, a call was put out on social media looking for volunteers to help test the functionality. Dave Foley was one of the first guys who volunteered to help. His feedback and help has been invaluable. Dave, a Cratloe clubman, has been using Tagger with a number of teams in the last year. We caught up with Dave to review the year and to get an insight into his processes.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background in analysis and current roles with Cratloe/UL GAA?
I started off my analysis journey with the famed hurling academy Ardscoil Ris in Limerick, winning the u18.5 A Harty Cup in my first year involved in 2018. That same year I became involved with my own club Cratloes Senior hurling team, reaching back-to-back county finals in 2018 and 2019. I began my studies in the University of Limerick in 2021 and with that found myself involved in both the Fresher 1 and 2 Hurling Teams, winning the league and championship double with both teams that year and subsequently retaining the Fresher 1 League and Fresher 2 Championship the following year. I was also involved in the u16.5 Dean Ryan Hurling win with Ardscoil Ris in 2022, a team I am still currently involved in, along with continuing my involvement in both UL and Cratloe teams.
You have been using Tagger for a while now. Can you describe how you use Tagger? How it fits into your analysis workflow? For example, do you mainly use it for live game tagging or post-game video analysis or both?
I have been fortunate enough to be using Tagger since 2022 when I contacted Peter as he was first starting up, and I haven’t looked back since. I found previously that most software’s were extremely basic and limited, so the versatility and ease of use of Tagger has been invaluable. Me personally, I tend to look at extreme basics when live tagging, I identify with management teams what we feel is key information we need on matchday and I subsequently format Tagger to suit the needs of a particular management team or opponent. Where I find the real benefit of Tagger is doing post-game analysis, each player is left with its own individual stats and clips, and management teams benefit from the clear and well laid out graphs and shot charts for a clear post-game picture. A personal favourite feature of mine is the fully interactive shot and puck-out maps, the ability to view on a map specific area of success/failure with such ease is invaluable.
What are some of the key events that you and your management team like to capture during or after the game and what insights do you get from the data (and/or video) that you capture? How do you share with management and team?
Hurling has become such a possession-based game, a team’s ability to keep possession when they have it and their ability to turn it over when they don’t go a long way in determining a team’s performance and the result of a game. Management teams I am involved with tend to set a target (usually a half time and full-time target) of turnovers and tends to be a good indicator of the intensity the team operates at. Having the data location based allows us to pin-point where in certain areas of the field we may be struggling/gaining the upper hand. The puck out is also an area where, to a certain extent, a team can control the outcome of the set play. As mentioned above, the interactive maps put Tagger in a league of its own. Along with being able to pinpoint certain areas, the interactive maps can lead to the discovery of patterns/habits of certain players that may not have been discovered otherwise.
Do you use these insights mainly to help with decision making during a game or do you find it more beneficial post-game to determine things that need to be worked on ahead of the next game?
Personally, I would see the main benefits of Tagger in the post-game analysis. I would use Tagger during a game to track a teams puck outs, shooting, turnovers and frees, and depending on a management teams’ preference or a certain opposition, a certain area can be looked at. I would also use Tagger to analyse potential opposition before we may face them. It gives incredible detail, a feature I also found beneficial was the puck out specific insights that tagger gives, giving you certain trends and results depending on the distance of a puck out that the opposition might have. The detail that Tagger produces gives any team the upper hand.
How has the experience been with Tagger? What feature(s) do you like most about Tagger?
The transition to Tagger has been a game-changer for my analysis. Every area is covered, and no stone is left unturned. As I mentioned previously, the interactive shot/puck out maps are a personal favourite feature of mine, but also the recent addition of the export function for specific clips is a superb update. Feedback from teams I have been involved with is also extremely positive, and the Google Drive share feature is my preferred method and all management teams have commented on the ease of access and the clarity of data, The amount of data that Tagger produces is so vast, it’s an achievement in itself to present it in such a clear and easy to process manner.
Final Comment by Peter from TeamOppy
Many thanks to Dave for his contribution to both the initial testing of Tagger and also to this blog. Dave is a highly regarded Analyst and will have a busy year ahead again in 2024. We wish Dave and his teams the best of luck for 2024 and beyond.
