Together with staff from QUT’s Skill, Sport Performance Research and Injury Group (SPRING), Associate Professor Vince Kelly, and Associate Professor Geoffrey Minett, QUT PhD student Mitch Burrows is completing an imbedded PhD with the Queensland Rugby League (QRL).
Mr Burrows is conducting his research alongside the QRL’s Performance and Pathways Team for his PhD study “Benchmarks to facilitate success in QLD Rugby League”. He is researching how to develop optimal pathways for players through QRL competitions, with the ultimate goal of playing in the NRL, NRLW and representative rugby league for state and country.
Mitch will be investigating the relationships between physical fitness performance and technical performance during a match.
In lay terms Mitch is trying to discover if the fittest players run more during a match or make more tackles during a match. Similarly he will research if the strongest and most powerful players or more effective in making more line breaks, breaking through more tackles or score more tries.
His research will also help to establish normative data for testing from 15 years up, in both men and women rugby league players, in an effort to maintain Queensland’s dominance in rugby league.
He plans to collect data from the a wide variety of players of all ages across many competitions. Mitchell research involves him working with the Performance and Pathways team at the Queensland Rugby League.
Mr Burrows is a QUT Faculty of Health QLD Rugby League Scholarship holder.