IT’S the attack of the drones. A technological arms race is being waged between a number of NRL coaches and few are willing to talk about it — let alone admit they own one of the futuristic devices.
But it has been revealed the Parramatta Eels and the South Sydney Rabbitohs now own state-of-the-art drones.
It is also understood the Brisbane Broncos are in the process of purchasing one while the Sydney Roosters trialled one in pre-season training.
The Melbourne Storm have also experimented with one and the North Queensland Cowboys are considering a purchase.
The space-age looking machines make former Roosters’ coach Brian Smith’s cherry picker look positively primitive and have already made their way onto training paddocks in the NFL and the AFL.
While the Eels train on the ground, a drone is being used to get an aerial view. Picture: Brett Costello
With coaches always looking for an edge, those using drones now have an outright advantage over their competitors, with a whole new aerial perspective in training.
NFL teams are already using drones, with some sending out information to players’ smartphones or tablets.
The increased scrutiny has some footballers uncomfortable with the invasion.
“Some players don’t like it,” laughed one insider, saying their flaws are now too easily identifiable.
Managing director of Sphere Drones, Jack Cockinos, who recently sold the Rabbitohs a $5000 drone, said interest from NRL clubs was rising.
Sphere Drones previously mainly did business with military and government departments, but is moving into the sporting arena.
Last December South Sydney trialled one of the company’s drones and, after seeing the vision, was convinced to purchase one.
Rabbitohs staff are still in the process of getting their pilot licences from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to fly the drone over their training field in Redfern.
“South Sydney have quite a lot of high-tech gear and they didn’t buy just a cheap drone,” Mr Cockinos said.
Drone image of the Roosters training taken from a drone. Picture: @bondiufo on Instagram
A drone view of the goalposts while Roosters train. Picture: @bondiufo on Instagram
He described the drone he sold to the Rabbitohs as “beautiful” and said the vision they will get from the machine would be supreme: “It has a high definition camera which means more clarity, very good clarity.’’
Like South Sydney, the Broncos have several staff in the process of getting their drone controller certificates.
The Broncos are working in consultation with Lee Carseldine, a CASA certified drone operator. Mr Carseldine is the owner of Queensland-based company Droneit and is also a former state cricketer. “We are working with them to find a good solution to apply the technology to their training,” he said.“Previously what they used to do was get scaffolding and have still cameras. A drone gives them mobility.“They saw the angles that Spider Cam can give the fans in the games, but now the people behind the scenes are saying; ‘hey we want to use it with our training’. Well, you can’t put a Spider Cam in a training venue so the next best thing is getting a drone, which is pretty much getting the same angles.“We are working with them to make sure they get the right drones. We are making sure they are fully insured, there are safety aspects, that’s the most important part of it.”One drawback of the high-priced machines is they have a limited battery life of around 15 to 24 minutes.Mr Carseldine said a lot of the time the teams only wanted them for that amount of time: “They run the training drill, bring it down, study the footage, put a spare battery in and then fly the drone again.’’
Replies
I thought you were going to say teams are using them to spy on other teams while they train...
"Rabbitohs staff are still in the process of getting their pilot licences from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to fly the drone over their training field in Redfern."
A drone is a vehicle without a human pilot.
I figured the Rabbits officials would be applying for a licence to remote control the drones. Doubt if it would be called a pilot's licence. The way it reads sounds like CASA hands out a pilot's licence after an hour's practical test.
They are easier to fly than a radio-control plane.They have onboard self stabilizing gyros which self correct their flight attitude.I've been flying R/C planes for decades and they require a lot of training and skill to fly.Anyone can fly a drone.
How much do they cost Tom? Our local council bought one for mosquito spraying. Sounds like a good idea.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next