Sharing Made Easy: How Video Distribution Helped Sydney FC to the Top of the League

Three-time Australian A-League champions Sydney FC place a huge emphasis on video analysis as part of their winning culture. 

Here’s how Hudl brings video, data and communications together for them in a single platform.


Finishing top of the table in the in the 2017/18 season, Sydney FC are enjoying a successful period, with player feedback playing a key role in that success.

A critical part of their analysis process is how they share and distribute video and data across the full range of senior and academy teams, including players, managers and coaches.

Sydney FC’s general manager of football operations Terry McFlynn explains how Hudl’s platform brings video, data and team communication together effectively.

“Hudl is an extremely important part of our process in terms of capturing the footage from training, capturing footage from games, reviewing it and formulating a plan to improve on that,” said McFlynn.

“The ability to share that with coaches and players means everyone is on the same page moving forward.”


You can learn about how Sydney FC's use video to maintain one of the best academies in Australia here

Head of football analysis Justin McMahon’s weekly workflow includes providing video feedback to a range of senior and academy teams. With many academy players not full time, he relies on Hudl’s platform to distribute and communicate with Sydney’s up and coming stars.

“The workflows are really efficient in terms of being able to produce content for other players within our system that we don’t necessarily have day-to-day access to, and it’s very efficient for those players to be able to view things that we have put together,” said McMahon.

In terms of match analysis, McMahon and his team place a huge emphasis on feedback through video, and the way that informs players' decision-making.

“We can get information from a whole multitude of statistical platforms. We will use that to then go and consult the video, and sit players down and show them what they have done in real match situations,” said McMahon.

“Ultimately, the video doesn’t lie.”

Current first team player and academy graduate Cameron Devlin is a great example of a player whose development has thrived through the use of video analysis, which the club uses from Under-13 and up.

“We use video analysis at this club every single day, so for me personally, I’ll go home and clip my games, and go to every single touch and every single tackle that I played a part in and then the things that I am doing wrong, or that I am doing right, you look at it how you could do it better,” said Devlin.

“Obviously a big part of the game is what you do on the pitch, but as soon as you get off the pitch, looking at video, looking at what you can do better is how you improve.”

To see how shareable analytics fuels the modern game, take a look at our case studies on the 2017 AFL Premiers Richmond Tigers and English Premiership Rugby’s Leicester Tigers.

You can learn about how Sydney FC's use video to maintain one of the best academies in Australia here