About the data
Source: DRIBL match centres for two SA governing bodies — Football SA (fsa.dribl.com: State League 1, State League 2, and the RAA National Premier League, across Seniors, Reserves, U18s and finals) and SAASL (saasl.dribl.com: Home and Away regular season across all Saturday and Sunday grades) — enriched with optical and event-level match tracking from Sofascore.
Extracted
The data layers
The platform combines two distinct data streams to provide both broad competition coverage and elite-tier analytical depth:
1. DRIBL administrative match data
Universal baseline across all 39 leagues
DRIBL is the official competition management platform used by Football SA and SAASL. Across all four divisions and 39 leagues, DRIBL records:
- Match participation: Official team sheets, starters, substitutes, and exact substitution minutes.
- Scoring & Discipline: Goals (with penalty and own-goal flags), yellow and red cards, and captaincy.
- Match events & timeline: Minute-by-minute goal sequences (used to compute equaliser, go-ahead, winner, and late goals).
- Official 3-2-1 votes: Best-on-ground referee/official votes per match.
- Squad movement: "Borrowed" player flags indicating players playing up or down between grades within their club.
2. Sofascore advanced event tracking
Elite tiers & Senior NPL
To capture on-ball actions unavailable in standard administrative scorecards, matches across 7 South Australian tournaments (including Senior NPL and State League 1) are enriched with detailed event data:
- Expected metrics: Expected Goals ($xG$), Expected Assists ($xA$), and $xG$ per shot.
- Passing & Creativity: Accurate passes, passing accuracy %, key passes, big chances created, and long ball completion %.
- Duels & Defending: Ground duels, aerial duels, duel win rate %, tackles, interceptions, recoveries, and clearances.
- Goalkeeping: Saves, saves from inside the box, and save success rate.
- Algorithmic match ratings: Objective 0–10 performance ratings calculated from match events.
- Physical profiles: Verified dates of birth, age, height (cm), player tactical positions, and official player headshots.
Coverage across leagues: Advanced optical tracking covers Senior NPL and tracked leagues. Unmeasured divisions (SL2, SAASL) cleanly retain null (–) rather than zero so league rankings and scatter plots remain unbiased.
Scouting archetypes & tags
To assist recruiters and analysts in identifying different player profiles, the platform highlights three distinct scouting archetypes:
💎 Hidden Gem
Unpromoted talent in lower grades
A player active in Reserves or Under 18s who has logged zero senior minutes all season.
Flags young or unpromoted players who are dominating youth/reserves competition and deserve consideration for senior promotion.
⚡ Emerging Senior
U21 standout at the top level
A U21 player (age ≤ 21 or recorded in U18) competing in Senior NPL who achieves a Sofascore rating ≥ 7.0 OR $(xG/90 + xA/90) ≥ 0.40$.
Highlights young talents who have broken into the highest state division and are already delivering top-tier senior production.
🎯 Undervalued Performer
Efficiency in tough team contexts
A player on a bottom-half NPL team (ladder position > half of teams, min. 450 minutes) recording a duel win rate ≥ 60% OR passing accuracy ≥ 80%.
Surfaces high-quality contributors whose individual efficiency is masked by poor team results or lower possession sides.
Method notes
Reading the numbers responsibly
- Sample size matters: A regular season consists of at most 22 rounds. Per-90 rates built on small samples are naturally volatile; the shortlist shrinks them toward the league average, but treat anything under ~900 minutes as a scouting lead rather than a final verdict.
- League context is paramount: Competition difficulty varies significantly between grades. A goal in State League 2 Reserves is not equivalent to an NPL Senior goal. Scores and percentiles are adjusted strictly within each individual league, never pooled across grades.
- Process vs outcome ($xG$ & $xA$): Finishing streaks fluctuate with variance. Expected goals ($xG$) and expected assists ($xA$) reflect the underlying quality of chances created and conceded, offering a more stable indicator of future performance.
- Data origins: Administrative match records are entered by club volunteers; optical event metrics are tracked algorithmically. Expect occasional volunteer attribution errors in sub minutes or card assignments.
- Data informs, the eye decides: Statistical indicators are designed to help scouts and clubs identify who to go watch in person and where to focus attention. They complement scouting workflows rather than replacing match evaluation.