Third Coach · Data strategy for high-performance teams

The third coach every team is missing.

Scott Peterson leads the data capability that turns complex information into confident decisions, forged in elite Australian sport and built to travel.

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Across 4 professional sports · 9+ years in elite sport · published researcher · founder of teams and companies

  • Cricket NSW
  • Football Australia
  • GWS GIANTS
  • Sydney FC
  • Western Sydney Wanderers
  • Sydney Sixers
  • Sydney Thunder
  • Washington Freedom
  • Malmö FF
  • FC Nordsjælland

The idea

Understand the real game. Then train for it.

The best coaches win by making training represent the game they'll actually face. The same is true of any organisation: if your decisions aren't grounded in the real environment, your daily actions drift from the outcomes you're chasing. Data is how you close that gap, and it's the third coach every high-performing team needs at the table.

Scott Peterson

Scott Peterson

Founder, Third Coach · Data scientist

01

Findings you can act on

Insight only changes anything if the people who have to act on it understand it. Scott communicates in the language of the organisation, not the language of models and algorithms, so leaders trust the numbers and know what to do with them.

02

A method that travels

Built across four professional sports and multiple countries, Scott's approach isn't tied to any one game. It's a high-performance mentality for getting the most out of staff, talent, and operations, wherever the stakes are high.

03

Leverage from what you already have

No rip-and-replace. Scott builds on the people and systems already in the building, automating the busywork so practitioners get back to the judgement they were hired for.

Experience

Proven where the stakes are highest.

2016 - Present

  • Founded and operate independent consultancy providing performance analysis and data science services to professional sporting organisations.
  • Partner with elite sports teams to transform complex data into competitive advantages through advanced analytics and custom solutions.
  • Deliver specialised consulting across data strategy, workflow automation, and performance insights.
  • Build lasting relationships with sporting organisations, often maintaining multi-year engagements.
ConsultancyData SciencePerformance AnalysisEntrepreneurship

Jan 2025 - Present

  • Design high-performance data systems that generate efficiencies and lift the quality of outputs for national teams.
Data StrategyHigh PerformanceNational Teams

Principal Data Scientist

Jul 2022 - Present • 3 yrs 11 mos

  • Received CEO commendation for leading Cricket NSW's legacy preservation project, developing a comprehensive digital archive celebrating the organisation's rich history of players, coaches, and administrators.
  • Lead data strategy for the high-performance department, identifying competitive advantages and productionising intellectual property across multiple elite programs.
  • Collaborate closely with performance analysis teams to develop industry-leading processes, tools, and insights that streamline workflows and deliver enhanced value to managers, coaches, and players.
  • Integrate Sport Science & Sports Medicine data into centralised repositories, supporting research publications while increasing accessibility and utility of athlete management systems.
  • Design drafting and squad management tools for executives and selection boards, enabling data-driven decisions across Big Bash, Major League Cricket, and international affiliate programs.
Data StrategyHigh PerformanceLeadershipCricket

Data Scientist & Performance Analyst

Aug 2019 - Jul 2022 • 2 yrs 11 mos

  • Founded and led the Performance Analysis department, transforming part-time operations into a comprehensive high-performance unit supporting 8 teams across 9 franchise, domestic, and international competitions.
  • Automated training and matchday performance workflows, developing integrated software solutions that combine video analysis with pre-, during-, and post-match data. Built BI models and web applications using R and Python.
  • Mentored analysts to develop data science skills and hone their performance analysis methodologies, enabling them to uncover competitive advantages and deploy insights through accessible, dynamic tools.
Performance AnalysisAutomationRPythonLeadership

Jan 2021 - Present

  • Turn community-sector organisations' own data into clear, confident operational and strategic decisions, grounded in evidence rather than intuition alone.
  • Translate complex data into visual insights that make genuine business sense, informed by deep understanding of the operational, funding, and regulatory context that shapes what the numbers mean.
  • Work across strategic planning, regulation and compliance, business analytics, and communications, helping organisations tell their story clearly and effectively.
  • Demystify artificial intelligence for community-sector leaders, helping them understand where it adds real value and how to use it with confidence.
Data ScienceData VisualisationBusiness AnalyticsRisk & GovernanceStrategic PlanningRegulation & ComplianceCommunications

Jan 2019 - Feb 2025

  • Implement comprehensive data pipelines (web scraping, API integration, data cleaning, and cloud deployment) maintaining centralised datasets across AFL, AFLW, VFL, Netball, and commercial operations.
  • Consult with performance analysis teams, Head of Sport Science & Sports Medicine, and Head of Customer Acquisition to design tailored data architecture enabling critical insights for squad selection, board reporting, and opposition analysis.
  • Generate operational efficiencies enabling GWS to operate lean while reallocating budget toward competitive advantage initiatives, grassroots participation programs, fan engagement strategies, and internship development programs.
  • Contributed to organisational success as GWS reached finals in 4 of 6 years during tenure.
Data EngineeringAFLCloud DeploymentPerformance Analysis

Sep 2018 - Jun 2019

  • Continued development of automated analysis workflows and data-driven insights for A-League competition.
  • Applied learnings from Sydney FC to enhance performance analysis capabilities.
  • Collaborated with coaching staff to implement tactical analysis frameworks.
FootballA-LeaguePerformance Analysis

Jul 2018 - Jun 2023

  • Developed and integrated high-impact reporting and automation processes deployed across all organisational levels, streamlining operations and improving data accessibility.
  • Partnered directly with CEO to design executive dashboards and monitoring tools for tracking key revenue and growth indicators.
  • Managed data validation, statement generation, and distribution systems for NDIS clients while leading the transition to modernized data infrastructure.
Workflow AutomationData StrategyExecutive DashboardsNDIS

Jun 2016 - Oct 2018

  • Led goalkeeping research implementation that enabled Sydney FC to break 5 A-League records: most clean sheets in a season (16), fewest goals conceded in a season (12), fewest goals conceded at home (4), best goal difference (+43), and most goals scored (64).
  • Developed automated, streamlined analysis workflows founded in data science and computer programming, transforming traditional performance analysis approaches.
  • Led research focused on goalkeeper-striker interactions, conducting studies aligned with coaching philosophy to generate measurable competitive advantages.
  • Created comprehensive training and match analysis reports through coding and video breakdown, delivering actionable insights to players and coaches.
  • Managed end-to-end data processes including storage, manipulation, and analysis to develop strategic insights and maximise analytical value.
FootballResearchAutomationPerformance Analysis

2007 - 2015

  • Officiated football and futsal matches at various competitive levels.
  • Developed deep understanding of game dynamics and rules from an officiating perspective.
  • Enhanced communication and decision-making skills under pressure.
FootballFutsalOfficiating

What we build

The same belief, turned into tools.

Beyond consulting, Third Coach builds data products: software that puts evidence in the hands of the people making the call, and works with what an organisation already has rather than replacing it.

Cracking FlagsLive product

Your heat-stress policy, working automatically.

Built for the people who have to make the call. Cracking Flags turns static heat-safety policy into a live field tool, from location to decision in under ten seconds, and logs every decision automatically for compliance. It works with an organisation's existing policy rather than replacing it.

Founded and built by Scott Peterson for Australian sport, and beyond.

Visit crackingflags.com

How we work together

Ways Third Coach levels up a team.

Data strategy & capability

Build the data function that actually fits your organisation, leveraging the talent and systems you already have.

Workflow automation

Take the manual busywork off your practitioners so they can spend their time on people, judgement, and the decisions they were hired for.

Decision support & evidence

Validated, clearly communicated data your leaders can act on, and defend, when it matters most.

AI, demystified

Cut through the noise: where AI genuinely adds value for your organisation, explained in plain terms and put to work with confidence.

Publications

Peer-reviewed, and applied.

A review of the interaction between the striker and the goalkeeper at the individual tactical level in football

International Journal of Sports Science and CoachingMar 29, 2020

Peterson, S. W., & Bruton, M. R.

Abstract

Recent performance analysis techniques have attempted to move beyond a narrow focus on game outcomes by considering the game, team, group and individual tactical levels. Goals are decisive in football, yet the extent to which the individual…

Education

Grounded in research.

Master of Data Science

James Cook University

2019

With Distinction

Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science (Honours)

Australian Catholic University

2018

First Class

Honours Research

Developing a football performance analysis framework to define the goalkeeper-striker relationship at the individual tactical level.

Bachelor Exercise Science / Bachelor Business Administration

Australian Catholic University

2014 - 2017

GPA 6.63/7
  • Academic Excellence Scholarship
  • Executive Dean’s Commendation (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017)

Put data at your decision-making table.

If your team is ready to make sharper, more defensible decisions, let's talk.

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