Hi, my name's Taylar Borg and I'm the ALALW Sports Scientist here at Geelong Cats. I collect things such as GPS data, heart rate information, and other metrics around workload speed, strength, power. 

I then work closely with the coaches and medical staff to give them detailed reports on where the players are at with based on their data so that they can make a more accurate call on training loads, recovery strategies, and preparation.

What people see on the field is only a small picture of what actually happens behind the scenes. As so much happens that behind closed doors that not many people would know. 

As soon as the player arrives, whether that be training or game day, their first point of call is to the medical team. It's ensuring that we are keeping them to their prime and allowing the players to be able to reach their full potential in those skills.

I think when people think of sport, they mainly just think of the athletes. I also think they just think of the head coach or being a physiotherapist because that's what you see on camera and you see on game day. 

There's more to sport that a lot of people don't know. There's a lot of areas that we do to get players out on the field and playing at their best.

As sports scientists, I guess not many people know about the role and what we actually do to ensure that players are peaking at the right times. 

Studying at Deakin helped me in my role here at the Cats. Because it gave me the opportunity of actually being able to have my foot in the doors. 

Without Deakin, with the partnership that they have with Geelong Cats, I don't believe I would've had the opportunity to start here.

It's also given me the experience and the exposure in so many different areas, whether that be me wanting to study nutrition and then exposing me to what life actually is. 

As a sports scientist, I didn't know much about that role, so Deakin helped me understand, what more can we be as a sports scientist.

When I first started in the program, it was when it was very, very much part-time. 

Athletes were coming in to start training at 5:00 PM after finishing a full day of work. 

And I think a lot of people don't see that or see the big picture of how hard these females have had to work to get to where they want to be, and they're wanting to make this such a big picture, and they're working so hard behind scenes that not many people get to see.

And I think that for me, is the biggest achievement because I've been able to be a part of something that they're growing. 

The biggest career moment for me this season, is I'm now in the coach's box. I remember setting up my equipment, nd everything we were here at GMHBA and I was like, okay, wow, this is cool.

I'm in the coach's box and at the end of the game when we won, all the coaches getting up and shaking hands and I just kind of look around and I'm the only female in here around seven really professional males who have been in this industry for a really long time.

So that was really like a flick of a moment for me. Like I was like, yeah, I finally made it and I can be proud of myself.