What does a Wallaroos or Wallabies Rugby World Cup champion look like?
Tall? Powerful? Frighteningly quick?
Australian Catholic University Associate Professor Jonathon v Weakley will cast light on that picture after winning a National Industry PhD Program Award to support longitudinal performance, retention, and wellbeing of rugby players.
The four-year partnership between ACU and Rugby Australia (RA) will be an in-depth exploration into the code's performance, health and rehabilitation questions in a period encompassing the men's and women's World Cups.
A critical element of the project will be the involvement of an embedded PhD student who will contribute to the growth of shared knowledge within RA's pathways.
"It all starts with understanding what a Wallaroos or Wallabies great looks like. Then we can determine how to get there," Associate Professor Weakley said.
"We're fortunate to have leaders like Scott Murphy (RA's General Manager of Performance Health, Science and Data) who understand sport science and the need for data to guide decisions that will lead to better physical development".
"The PhD student will work with myself and RA to contribute to an evidence base that feeds into a national, longitudinal standardised testing and profiling battery that can enhance the performance, retention, and health of players from grassroots to elite."
While considerable amounts of data are collected, there is still a need to better understand how this data can be used to guide training prescription, monitor changes in physical characteristics, and rank athletes of different playing positions so they can be supported in the sport.
The award program is part of a $296 million government initiative to build a bedrock of research talent skilled in university-industry collaboration. It provides opportunities for high-achieving PhD candidates to learn about knowledge translation and research impact.
The collaboration is part of a wider set of projects between RA and ACU that will explore four main categories, including: injury, testing and profiling, nutrition, and training and match demands. These projects not only focus on developing knowledge and helping to service the pathways, they also aim to develop better practitioners.
"Just like we train our athletes, we need to train our sport science staff. Developing and retaining talent is not only an on-field consideration – we need to do it off the field as well" Associate Professor Weakley said.
Developing a co-designed, gold-standard assessment battery that can support decision-makers and inform practice across the rugby playing pathway will be the main deliverable.
"It will be research that solves problems and answers questions," Associate Professor Weakley said.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise Professor Abid Khan said industry linkage projects were a focus of ACU's long-term strategic plan, Vision 2033.
"Our research doesn't exist in a vacuum", Professor Khan said. "We are focused on projects that contribute to the common good and make a tangible impact on the communities we serve"
Graduate Research School Director Michelle Lopez said the grant was another success for ACU's researchers within the Faculty of Health Sciences and ACU's Graduate Research School.
"The Graduate Research School oversees a range of exciting scholarship opportunities that bring together talented research students, experienced academics and industry partners to provide evidence-based solutions to real-world challenges,"
she said.
Jonathon Weakley is an Associate Professor at ACU's Sports Performance, Recovery, Injuries and New Technologies Research Centre (SPRINT).
An expert in strength and conditioning, resistance training and nutrition, he has worked with elite teams including the Wallaroos, Queensland Reds, Olympic Sevens team, and the England Rugby Union.
