For the young players at the Queensland Murri Carnival (QMC), the thrill wasn’t just about playing the game they love—it was about stepping into the shoes of their NRL idols, wearing the same high-tech gear as the pros.
Thanks to a partnership between the QUT Centre for Data Science (CDS) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service (ATSICHS) Brisbane, kids on two under-16 and under-14 teams were equipped with Catapult wearables during their matches, giving them a glimpse into the world of professional sports data.

The initiative was the brainchild of CDS Director Kerrie Mengersen and ATSICHS Brisbane General Manager for Corporate Services Jarryd Aleckson. Their goal was to provide these young athletes with an experience that merged sport and data in a meaningful way.
“Sports and data go hand in hand. We saw this as a unique way to give these young athletes a taste of sports data science while doing something they love,” said Kerrie.
“With countless opportunities in modern sports beyond the field, we saw this project as a chance to provide young athletes with an exciting new experience, showcasing alternative career paths within STEM and data science.” said Jarryd.
Catapult is the same provider of wearable vests used by NRL athletes. For three matches, the two teams wore the Catapult vests, which captured key performance metrics like speed, distance covered, and intensity of play—data capture that’s typically reserved for elite professionals.
QUT Professor Divya Mehta, Co-lead of the CDS Sports Systems Domain is excited about the project saying, “We were able to show them their data through personalized and team profiles. This allowed them to reflect not just on how they played but how they moved during the game.”

Beyond performance, this initiative had a deeper purpose: fostering data literacy. CDS PhD Candidate Becki Cook, curious to see if the experience could spark a new interest in data, developed two surveys—one given before the players wore the devices and one after.
“I think this project is important because sport is something many of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are passionate about,” said Becki.
“By engaging them with their own data and showing how data is used in sport, we can build data literacy and provide tools for young people to improve their sport performance as well as their health and wellbeing.”
To respect privacy students were given aliases of famous Australian Indigenous players, spanning generations. From Arthur Beetson, the first Indigenous player to captain the Australian test team, to modern stars such as Reece Walsh and Selwyn Cobbo.
The initiative didn’t just capture data—it also captured attention. Onlookers around the carnival were curious about the technology, and soon, some of the players were excitedly explaining how the wearables worked to their peers.

CDS researcher Dr. Alan Woodley said it was cool to see some of the players on our teams enthusiastically explaining the data and what it meant to their friends. .
Pulling off this project was a true team effort.
QUT’s School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences provided the Catapult vests and PhD Candidate Bruna Bittencourt Sotomaior managed their use and extracted the data. CDS PhD Candidates Jamintha Samarakoon and Sithara Wijekoon then created the data visualizations that showed off the players’ performance. Also helping during the event, Ashley Stewart, Fiona Carson-Flynn, and Tim Macuga – all from CDS.
“This was more than just a tech experiment; it was a chance for young athletes to step into the shoes of pros, learn more about their performance, and potentially spark a new interest in data and health. We’re excited to see how this initiative evolves in the years to come,” Kerrie said.
With additional support from QUT Sport, the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI), and the permission of the QMC and the Arthur Beetson Foundation, this initiative promises to grow. Plans are already underway to expand the project next year, bringing even more young athletes into the world of sports data science.