This story was written by Sue White and originally appeared on 6 August 2016 in the Sydney Morning Herald’s My Career section. Photo credit – Collingwood Media. Click here to view the original story.

As the AFL season draws to its annual crescendo, it’s a pretty good bet there are many adults wishing they could live and breathe the world of footy year round. Dominic Milesi actually does.

As it turns out, Milesi’s background – a degree in economics and finance, supported by years of experience working in financial roles (including on Victoria’s state budget) – set him up well for his role as Collingwood Football Club’s national recruiting manager.

The job is varied: there’s watching potential players to assess their talents, interviewing players to find out what they’re like off the field, and a heavy dose of performance analysis.

“I look at the data in terms of a player’s statistics and testing, and use that to analyse potential players of interest to us,” Milesi says.

Then, there’s the task of ensuring salaries stay below the required salary cap (that job is known colloquially as a capologist). It’s just one of the many ways Milesi uses the maths skills he assumed would see him build a long-term career in more straitlaced finance roles.

“I use those skills every day, whether it’s to go through player contracts, or analyse statistical data.
We also use a lot of graphical representations; they make it easier for people to interpret the data and make quick decisions,” he says.

Although Milesi’s job is just one of many examples of how STEM skills can be applied in non-traditional fields, landing his current role has taken time. Before the role at Collingwood came up he spent nine years either volunteering at footy clubs or working in honorarium roles every weekend, all while holding down a day job during the week.

“It’s extremely competitive. I started at 21 and I was 30 before I got a fulltime job. It’s taken a long time to get this far, but I also realise I’m lucky to have this opportunity,” he says.

While Milesi’s mathematics and finance skills were the door opener for his current career it turns out we need more like him. Seventy per cent of Australia’s job growth is predicted to require STEM-related skills, but today, only 16 per cent of students are considering STEM-based careers.

As part of a broader national effort to address this mismatch, Collingwood recently launched the STEM Cup Challenge, which gives students across a chance to step into the role of capologist by using analytics and problem solving skills to select player salaries for the 2017 season. (The winner gets a day on the job with Milesi during draft week.) While it’s aimed at students, so many adults are passionate about AFL, they don’t need a competition to offer their advice when they meet Milesi at a barbecue or social outing and learn what his job involves. He takes it in his stride: after all, when he signed up for the job, he knew it was a 24/7 gig.

“During the season we’re watching a lot of games, so from February to October we work six days a week.
After that we have interviews with players, then we are watching them do their physical testing, right up to the draft in November,” he says.

So back to the barbecues. What happens?

“People normally have a player that they say I should have looked at – it’s the first thing that comes up!” he says.

Visit http://dayofstem.com.au/STEM-Cup.html