The NRL tracks 14,000 data points per game.
PNG tracks three.
Stats Perform captures every tackle, every metre, every offload across the NRL — powering SuperCoach, broadcast graphics, scouting, and betting. We bring that same capability to the Digicel ExxonMobil Cup using your existing game footage.
Talk To UsHow the NRL does it
Every NRL match feeds a multi-billion dollar data pipeline. Stats Perform has been the NRL's official data partner for over 10 years, capturing 5,000+ on-ball events per game. Here's where that data goes.
Live match coding
Teams of trained coders watch every NRL game in real time from the NRL Bunker and Stats Perform's Sydney production centre. They manually tag every tackle, run, pass, kick, and error as it happens — over 5,000 events per game with 10,500+ contextual qualifiers.
Broadcast integration
The data feeds directly into Fox Sports, Kayo, and Nine's broadcast graphics. Real-time tackle counts, metres gained, and player tracking overlays. The A$1.7 billion broadcast deal depends on this data making matches more engaging to watch.
SuperCoach fantasy
150,000+ Australians play NRL SuperCoach every season, generating 700+ million page views for News Corp. Players score points based on real match stats — tackles, metres, linebreaks, errors. In 2026, SuperCoach switched to official Stats Perform data for even greater accuracy.
Scouting and recruitment
Every NRL club uses Stats Perform data for recruitment decisions. Multi-season player profiles, positional benchmarks, and performance trends. Without data, you're guessing. With data, you're recruiting.
PNG has none of this
Rugby league is PNG's national sport. 12 teams, 80+ games per season, all broadcast on TVWAN. But the only stats recorded are tries, goals, and points. That's it.
What the NRL tracks vs what the Digicel Cup tracks
| Stat | NRL | Digicel Cup |
|---|---|---|
| Tries, goals, points | Yes | Yes |
| Tackles made | Yes | No |
| Missed tackles | Yes | No |
| Metres gained | Yes | No |
| Linebreaks | Yes | No |
| Offloads | Yes | No |
| Errors | Yes | No |
| Tackle busts | Yes | No |
| Kick metres | Yes | No |
| Try assists | Yes | No |
| Minutes played | Yes | No |
| Fantasy/SuperCoach scoring | Yes | No |
| Scouting profiles | Yes | No |
No data for coaches
NRL coaches review 50+ stats per player every week. Digicel Cup coaches have nothing. No tackle efficiency, no metres data, no error rates. They're coaching blind.
No data for scouts
The PNG Chiefs need to build an NRL roster by 2028 from Digicel Cup talent. Right now there is zero performance data to evaluate players — only what you can see on video with no structure.
No fantasy for fans
150,000 Australians play NRL SuperCoach. PNG has 10 million rugby league fans and no fantasy platform. You can't run SuperCoach without stats. No stats means no fantasy, no fan engagement, no sponsorship revenue.
How we extract stats from your footage
The NRL pays Stats Perform to deploy live coding teams at every venue. We use AI computer vision to do the same thing from your existing broadcast footage — at a fraction of the cost.
The pipeline: from TVWAN footage to SuperCoach-ready data
TVWAN broadcast footage is uploaded after each Digicel Cup game. An 80-minute match produces ~144,000 frames. Any standard video format — no special cameras or hardware required.
YOLO (You Only Look Once) computer vision models scan every frame at up to 200+ FPS. The AI detects and locates every player and the ball with 87-95% accuracy, then assigns each player to their team using jersey colour clustering. The entire 80-minute game is processed in under 30 minutes.
ByteTrack maintains consistent player identities frame-to-frame with 95%+ tracking consistency. Combined with field homography mapping (converting pixel coordinates to real pitch positions), this gives us player movement data, distance covered, speed, and territorial possession — automatically.
The AI automatically detects scoring events (tries, goals, field goals), kick events (from ball trajectory analysis), interchanges, and contact events. It flags timestamps for every play, pre-segments the footage, and identifies players via jersey number OCR — cutting analyst review time by more than half.
Trained rugby league analysts review the AI-flagged events and tag the stats that require human judgement — individual tackle counts, metres gained per carry, offloads, missed tackles, and errors. This is the same manual coding process that Stats Perform uses for NRL games, but our AI pre-processing means analysts work from pre-segmented plays rather than raw footage.
AI-generated stats are cross-checked against analyst tags. Discrepancies are resolved against the video. The same editorial verification that Stats Perform runs with back-office statisticians for every NRL game.
Complete match stats delivered within 48 hours via online dashboard, spreadsheet export, or API. Every stat maps to NRL SuperCoach scoring categories — ready for fantasy platforms, broadcast overlays, scouting databases, and coaching dashboards.
The technology under the hood
We combine proven computer vision AI with expert human analysis — the same hybrid approach used by leading sports analytics companies worldwide.
What the AI automates vs what analysts handle
| Capability | Method | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|
| Player detection and location | AI (YOLO) | 87-95% |
| Team identification | AI (colour clustering) | 95%+ |
| Player tracking frame-to-frame | AI (ByteTrack) | 95%+ |
| Pitch mapping / field coordinates | AI (homography) | ~94% |
| Distance covered / player speed | AI (tracking + mapping) | High |
| Team possession % | AI (ball proximity) | High |
| Kick events | AI (trajectory analysis) | High |
| Tries / scoring events | AI (position + context) | High |
| Jersey number recognition | AI + analyst verify | 87-91% |
| Linebreaks | AI + analyst verify | Medium-High |
| Metres gained per carry | AI + analyst verify | Medium-High |
| Tackles made / missed | Analyst (AI-flagged) | High (human) |
| Offloads | Analyst (AI-flagged) | High (human) |
| Errors and penalties | Analyst (AI-flagged) | High (human) |
| Tackle busts | Analyst (AI-flagged) | High (human) |
YOLO computer vision
YOLO (You Only Look Once) is a state-of-the-art object detection model used by the NFL, Premier League, and Olympic sports for real-time player tracking. It processes each video frame in milliseconds — detecting every player, the ball, and referees. We fine-tune YOLO specifically on rugby league footage for maximum accuracy.
ByteTrack multi-object tracking
Once YOLO detects players in each frame, ByteTrack links those detections together across time — following each player as they move, accelerate, and change direction. Combined with field homography (mapping pixel positions to real pitch coordinates), this gives us distance covered, speed, and territorial data automatically.
Why AI + human, not AI alone
Rugby league's defining moments — tackles, offloads, knock-ons — happen when players are on top of each other. No AI can reliably see through that contact. Even Framesports (a leading rugby analytics company) tried 100% AI and had to bring humans back. Our AI pre-processes and flags events, then expert analysts tag the contact-sport stats — the same way Stats Perform uses human coders for the NRL.
The AI gets better every game
Every game our analysts tag becomes training data for our AI models. Season 1: AI handles ~40% of stats automatically, analysts do 60%. By season 3, the ratio flips — AI automates 60%+, analysts verify. By season 5, the system approaches NRL-level automation. Each season is cheaper and faster than the last.
No hardware investment
The NRL uses Catapult GPS wearables ($10K-$100K/team) and multi-camera arrays at every venue. We work from your existing TVWAN broadcast footage — a single broadcast camera is enough. Our cloud GPU pipeline processes the entire game remotely. No sensors, no new cameras, no on-site equipment.
Processing speed
YOLO processes broadcast footage at 200+ frames per second — a full 80-minute match is scanned in under 30 minutes. With tracking, field mapping, and event detection, the full AI pipeline completes in 2-3 hours. Add analyst coding and quality verification: 48-hour turnaround from footage upload to complete match stats.
Full NRL-grade stats from every game
The same 25+ stats per player that Stats Perform delivers for every NRL match — extracted from your Digicel Cup footage.
Attacking
- + Tries, try assists, try contributions
- + Linebreaks and linebreak assists
- + Offloads (effective and ineffective)
- + Tackle busts and intercepts
- + Forced dropouts and 40/20s
Running
- + Metres gained
- + Post-contact metres
- + Kick metres
- + Hitups (8m+ and under)
- + Runs and line-engaged runs
Defence
- + Tackles made
- + Missed tackles
- + Try saves
- + Forced turnovers
- + Tackle efficiency %
SuperCoach Ready
- + Full SuperCoach scoring breakdown
- + Fantasy points per player per game
- + Season averages and price changes
- + Breakeven calculations
- + Minutes played / time on ground
What this unlocks
Stats don't just sit in a spreadsheet. They power an entire ecosystem — the same way they do in the NRL.
Digicel Cup SuperCoach
The NRL's SuperCoach has 150,000+ players generating 700 million page views a year with KFC and Tabcorp as sponsors. PNG has 10 million rugby league fans and zero fantasy platforms. Our stats make a Digicel Cup SuperCoach possible — creating a brand new fan engagement and sponsorship channel.
Broadcast enhancement
The NRL's A$1.7B broadcast deal relies on real-time stats for on-screen graphics — tackle counts, metres gained, player comparisons. We can provide the same data to TVWAN, making Digicel Cup broadcasts more professional and attractive to advertisers.
PNG Chiefs talent pipeline
Every NRL club uses Stats Perform data for recruitment. The PNG Chiefs need to build a roster from Digicel Cup talent by 2028 — but right now there's no performance data to scout from. Our stats create a structured scouting database for every player in the competition.
Coach and club analytics
NRL coaches review player stats every week to make selection and tactical decisions. Digicel Cup coaches currently rely on memory and match video alone. Our dashboard gives every club NRL-level performance insights — opponent weaknesses, player development tracking, position-by-position comparisons.
Packages
Stats Perform charges the NRL hundreds of thousands per year. We bring the same depth of data at a fraction of the cost — designed for the Digicel Cup's budget.
Competition Package
Custom
- + Every game in the Digicel Cup season (80+ matches)
- + Full stats dashboard for all teams
- + API feed for TVWAN broadcast integration
- + Season awards data (tackle leader, metres leader, etc.)
- + SuperCoach fantasy platform included
- + Historical database that grows every season
Club Package
From $5K/season
- + Your team's games analysed (26 rounds + finals)
- + Player performance reports after every game
- + Opposition analysis before each match
- + Coach dashboard with season trends
- + Player comparison and benchmarking tools
Scouting Reports
From $500/player
- + Multi-game performance profile
- + Positional benchmarking vs NRL averages
- + Season trend analysis and trajectory
- + Video highlights linked to key stats
- + Ideal for NRL clubs and PNG Chiefs recruitment
The window is now
PNG Chiefs enter the NRL in 2028
AU$600M government investment. CEO Lorna McPherson appointed. GM Football Michael Chammas building operations. They need NRL-standard data infrastructure and a scouting database built from Digicel Cup performance — starting now, not 2028.
2026 Rugby League World Cup in PNG
PNG hosting World Cup matches for the first time. The international rugby league community will be watching. A Digicel Cup with professional-grade stats shows PNG is ready for the NRL stage.
Every season without data is a season lost
The NRL has 10+ years of Stats Perform data. Every season of Digicel Cup games played without stats is a season of player data that's gone forever. Start now and you'll have 2-3 years of historical data before the Chiefs take the field.
Bring NRL-grade stats to the Digicel Cup
We're looking for founding partners — the PNG NRLC, clubs, and the PNG Chiefs — to launch this season. The footage exists. The technology is proven. The NRL has been doing this for a decade. PNG is next.
Start the conversation