[SirFozzie]

Here's the rules, player wise:

You have a regular roster of 18 players and one "substitute" player. 15 of these players are on the field at a time, and you have three players on the interchange bench (basically to rest your players, give them a breather, get treatment from the trainer, etcetera). Your one substitute player can come in for any of your 18 players, but the substituted player cannot return to the game.

The first quarter (or Term) is pretty even, possession wise, (we have 91 possessions, they have 80), but even though they do a decent job of getting the ball into the attacking zone (We have 16 possessions inside their 50 yard line.. they have 13), we're pretty good at getting good shots at the posts..

We score five goals (in between the two middle posts, worth six points each) and two behinds (in between one of the outer posts and a middle post, worth 1 point), for 32 points, while the Bulldogs only have three behinds, so we lead by 29 points at the end of the first quarter:

We struggle for a bit in the second quarter (and this will lead to one of my beefs with the game, which I'll talk about later), and the Bulldogs manage to score 2 goals, 4 behinds (2.4) in the second quarter, but a couple late goals means we've stretched our lead at the major interval, Collingwood (8.3.51) leading over Footscray (2.7.19)

The third quarter, we fall apart. We only manage one point from the third term, and Footscray scores 8.6 to take a 21 point lead entering the fourth.

The fourth quarter is more of the same, and we fall (19.19.133 to 8.5.53)

Ok, major beef time:

Let's use FOF as an example. Let's say you only have three subs on the bench, so as players get tired, you have to manage them by subbing players in and out.

Now, let's say, you're a football fan, but you don't follow the NFL all that closely. You have NO idea who a lot of these players are. And let's say FOF's game screen has a sub menu that doesn't tell you what position all these players are best at.

You'd have a problem, right?

Damn sweet you would.

I think what happened here, is I randomly subbed out players who were fatigued, and when I was using my subs, got them all mixed up. So I probably had the equivalent of a lineman playing wide receiver, a linebacker playing quarter back, etcetera.. and I see no way to show on the match screen a listing of what positions all the players play.

So, we have a major design faux pas here, at least coming from the viewpoint of the American who likes watching the sport, but who has no idea who the Tom Brady of the AFL is...

I suggest for my fellow AFL newbies that you take a screen shot of your roster and refer to it during the game, that way you're substituting like for like, and your team plays to its highest potential. (yes, a defender can play for a midfielder, but eventually, if no one's playing in the right position, you're going to get killed, which is what I think happened here.