To the Grand Final, or just a Grand Finale - Foz Takes on Premiership Coach 11

[SirFozzie]

Ok, I probably will suck at this, but I figure to try this out and see what we can do, and see how everyone here on FOFC likes this:



The Splash screen for PC11




The Build a Coach Screen/start game screen

Like FOF, the teams are "fake named" to start, (while FOF would change the New England Patriots to the New England Minutemen, PC11 changes the Sydney Swans to the Sydney Ducks..)

So I have 25 points to spread out amongst the various abilities... and have to choose who I'm going to manage..

[SirFozzie]

I go with a five % boost in 5 categories:

Midfield, Forward, Defense Development.. I want to develop my players to the best of their abilities..

I also put 5% in Motivating Players and 5% in Ruck Development.. A lot of Aussie Rules isn't in the air, it's on the ground and the down and dirty stuff is necessary.

So, I decide to take one of the easier teams in the game (if everything comes out normally), the Collingwood Magpies (or, as they are known in the game, the Collingwood Butcherbirds)

Collingwood are the defending AFL champions as they won the Grand Final (although the first game was tied, so they played it again the next week.. Imagine if the Super Bowl was tied, and they had to play it next week?)

One fun bit with the AFL, each team has a theme (Old themes.. usually taken from other songs, for example, Sydney's theme is the Notre Dame Fight Song changed)..

Here's the Collingwood theme:

[SirFozzie]

Here's the main screen of the game. It has a newspaper, the current standings (the ladder), links to email ,and links to various areas (training, squad list, finances, etcetera)

[SirFozzie]

The team selection screen: I've asked my assistant to select the squad, as there's a lot of nomenclature that I'm not familiar with (for example, one full forward is referred to as the tall forward, one the small forward, and I have NO bloody idea what the difference is.. I gather it's like a goal scoring striker and a playmaking striker in soccer?)

[SirFozzie]

The newspaper previews the teams two by two each week in the preseason. We're expected to finish in the top 4. (the AFL uses a really unique postseason setup, I'll try to go over it at some point).. and I only have a one year contract. No pressure mind you :P

[SirFozzie]

The preseason tournament sees Collingwood get a bye in the first week as the defending AFL champions. The other 16 teams play, and 15 teams move on to the second week of the tournament.

Yes, that's right, ONE team gets knocked out in this round. The team who loses their preseason game by the most is eliminated from the competition.

While I have the free space, let me explain the games rivalry system. The game's designers have programmed in the traditional rivalries, as well as matchups that have been close recently. They all get ranked on a scale of 0-10.

Seven stars or more means that club is your permanent rivals. Games against them will ALWAYS mean more to the supporters (they will never go below seven stars rivalry). Other teams will fluctuate up and down depending on the history between the two teams.. but if they hit seven stars, it will become a permanent rivalry.

Here's our rivalry stats vs other teams:

Permanent Rivals:

Carlton (9 Stars)
Essendon (9 Stars)
Melbourne (8 Stars)
Richmond (7 Stars)

Not yet permanent:

Brisbane (5 stars)
Geelong (4 stars)
Adelaide (2 Stars)

[SirFozzie]

We draw the lowest ranked winner from preseason week 1, Richmond. The games are now a knockout tourney.

I was going to watch the game, but screwed up and advanced:

Collingwood (14.14.98) defeats Richmond (14.9.93) by five points.

[SirFozzie]

Well, we're in Round 3 of the preseason. A win here guarantees us a share of the tournament money (yes, you heard me, only 4 of 17 teams make money out of this tournament..)..

We're going to take on Footscray (otherwise known as the Western Bulldogs, or the Doggies)






This is the main game screen, as you can see, we're just about ready to start.

[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.

[Young Drachma]

Awesome man, thanks for being the guinea pig for this. How's the "always on the internet" activation issue?

[SirFozzie]

well, I have an always on connection (wired network on FIOS), so I couldn't tell you one way or the other, if it is or isn't.

[heardie]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

The team selection screen: I've asked my assistant to select the squad, as there's a lot of nomenclature that I'm not familiar with (for example, one full forward is referred to as the tall forward, one the small forward, and I have NO bloody idea what the difference is.. I gather it's like a goal scoring striker and a playmaking striker in soccer?)

A tall forward is your lead up, pack mark type of players (Chris Dawes/Travis Cloke)

Small forward is there to 'cumb' the ball once it has gone to ground (Didak, Thomas, etc)

Also - it should be 22 plays (21 + sub) with 18 on the ground at a time.

And it is a 50m line, not a 50 yard line

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Foz, I'm assuming you're much like me and know very little about the rules or the game tactics. Just wanted to confirm that to know where your knowledge lies, if any. Looks like a fun new challenge to take on. I took on Football Manager seven years ago and that turned out to be a great move.

[BYU 14]

OK Fozz, you have a chance to get back at us for Rift

Just a couple quick questions, can you edit the team nicknames (I assume yes) and does it have a tutorial tip bar like WWSM that feeds you tidbits of info as you play?

I always enjoy watching Aussie rules and have a basic grasp, but this would be a major challenge.

[SirFozzie]

Yes you can. It even comes with a data editor, so you could create your own ratings file..

I didn't see a tip thing.. THere's a help page for just about everything (fair warning, it looks to be inthe process of being fleshed out/filled out)

[SirFozzie]

Footscray wins the Preseason Cup, defeating Hawthorn (17.9 111) to (12.12 84)

We're joint top favorites, with three other teams, to win the premiership (with Footscray, Geelong, and Saint Kilda) at 4/1 odds.

Just like in round 1 of the Preseason Cup, we get the bye, so we do some scouting for future talent. A nice bit is that the scout reports get sent right
to your email bin, with your scouts view of the player: For example (I won't do this for everyone, this is not a copy-paste, but me going back and forth and typing)

Scout Report - Jonathan Broad

Overall: 77
Peak: 96
Position: Ruckman
League: Elite Youth
Club: Western

Jonathan Broad is one of the most talented ruckmen that we've seen in a long time. He is a reasonably athletic ruckman who is extremely clever at reading the play and out-positioning his opponent. He has enough body strength that he is competitive in ruck contests around the ground.

Plays Like: Nic Naitanui (West Coast)

So.. from just a couple paragraphs I can tell a lot about this player.. he's not only good and athletic at going up and controlling the ruck (the ballup situations after a goal, or to restart a game after out of bounds or ball held in tackle), but he is very good at POSITIONING himself to his best advantage.

And as for his ranking, the ruckmen I have in my assistant selected 21 (I see where I went wrong, the Ruck, Ruck Rover and Rover positions weren't on the map to start), two Ruckmen, who are ranked 86 and 79. So this player is nearly good enough already to start.

*sighs* Somehow I think the only way he'll be available for me on the AFL draft is if we're bad enough to get fired anyway :P

[SirFozzie]

2011 Premiership - Round 2: Collingwood (0-0, NA%) at Footscray (1-0, 120.88%)

((Quick note: I'm going to put the percentage up for each team, basically one of the major tie breakers for teams in the ladder (standings) is point differential, expressed as a percentage, 100% meaning you've scored just as many points as you've given up, so the Doggies have score 20.8% more then they've given up))

Oh great, our good friends from Footscray who stomped a mudhole in us, and walked it dry. I'm hoping that we can return the favor this time, with the additional strategy we've picked up.

Doubt it though, the paper's picking us to scrape it, just barely (1-10 points)

Well, the first quarter is more of the same.. I've picked up a game plan from the PC forums that handles interchanges, but ouch. This hurts. This really really hurts... When the other team has seven more scoring shots at goal in the space of thirty minutes of game time, yeah, that says a lot right there.

1Q Score: Footscray (8.4 52) leads Collingwood (3.2 20) by 32 points

We start out ok in the second quarter with a goal and two behinds before they can get on the board, but that will be the last goal we score in the second quarter.. just like when you allow too many shots, it's a really bad thing, if you can't put the ball between the posts more than once in seven scoring shots.. then you're in trouble.

Half-time score: Footscray (12.9 81) leads Collingwood (4.8 32) by 49 points

3rd Quarter: I give the team a bit of a hair-dryer treatment (you can talk to the team between quarters, here I told them how angry I was with their performance so far), and they do respond, cutting the lead down to 30, but the Bulldogs ride out the storm, and a couple late goals restore the lead, but at least we played better this quarter.

3Q Score: Footscray (14.14 98) leads Collingwood (7.8 50) by 48 points.

The final quarter is played defensively, both teams know the game is over, and don't push themselves too hard. We make a good account for ourselves and make it look semi-respectable, but the Bulldogs bite is just too much:

Final Score: Footscray (15.16 106) defeats Collingwood (9.10 64) by 42 points.

They had the ball inside our 50 nearly twice as many times (52-27).. despite only having a decent advantage in total possession (329-287)

Collingwood top scorers:
Dawes (2 goals, 3 behinds)
Jolly (2 goals, 1 behind)

[SirFozzie]

2011 Premiership - Round 3 Collingwood (0-1) vs North Melbourne (1-1)

(Forgot to get the % for this one, sorry!)

We definitely want to get back after being bounced by the Bulldogs, and North Melbourne (the Kangaroos in real life), look to be a team we can beat. Big game, in front of nearly 62,000 at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), the spiritual home of Australian Sport.

1st Quarter is tight, with only 8 scores taken, and it's all square after one. We have a slight advantage in possession, though, something we'll look to improve on throughout the game:

1Q Score: Collingwood (2.2 14) tied with North Melbourne (2.2 14)

The Second quarter belongs to the Magpies. Our defense only gives up two goals and a single behind, and we spend most of the quarter barraging the posts, and as we walk off at the major interval, it's a decent lead for Collingwood.

2Q Score: Collingwood (7.7 56) leads North Melbourne (4.3 27) by 29 points

We come out a bit sluggish in the third term, and North Melbourne scores the first three goals of the quarter, cutting our lead down to nearly single digits , but we steady the ship midway through, and score a couple key goals. The lead has shrunk significantly, but we're holding on, and North Melbourne are starting to show the strain of trying to catch up..

3Q Score: Collingwood (9.9 63) leads North Melbourne (8.4 52) by 11 points.

North Melbourne have a chance to cut the lead early in the fourth quarter to single digits, but it goes through only for a behind, and you could kinda see the starch go out of them at that point. Our boys are fresher, readier and better, and it shows. We score the next FIVE goals, and pull away, North Melbourne fighting gamely, but we had enough in the tank.

Final Score: Collingwood (15.15 105) defeats North Melbourne (11.8 74) by 31 points.

Collingwood Top Scorers
Didak (2 goals, 1 behind)
Thomas (2 goals)
11 players with 1 goal

[Blade6119]

Woo Hoo, first victory!

[Young Drachma]

Congrats on the W. This looks good.

[SirFozzie]

We now have 14 players on our fully scouted list. Probably the top player on the board is Victor Hazelman, a ruckman who is being touted as a possible once-a-generation player (Base 81, Peak 100(!))

The scary thing is that Hazelman can play forward and defense fairly well. Not as good a kicker of the ball on the run, but if he takes a mark ( a free kick for receiving a kick of 15 meters or more), he's pretty dead eye with shots on goal

[SirFozzie]

2011 Premiership Round 3: Hawthorn Hawks (1-2, 107.84%) vs Collingwood (1-1, 93.89%) at the MCG

We're going to be missing a player for this game, as defender Brad Dick was placed on report by the referee in last week's game, and the result from the tribunal was a three game suspension.

The newspaper reports gives Hawthorne a chance, but the paper says our better ruck work and midfield advantage should prove to be the difference, and tips us to win by 12-24.

The first half is a see-saw affair, but we're lacking a certain something. We get a good amount of inside 50's, but don't get many scoring shots off. The problem with this team right now is that we just do not have a go-to guy when we need a goal. It's good to have 8-10 players contributing goals.. but sometimes that means we have no idea where that next goal is coming from.. we go into the halftime break trailing (6.7 43) to (4.6) 30

The third quarter is more of the same, and here's a key stat for you in the game.. Contested Marks (that's where players from both teams have a chance at the ball, and one player catches the ball on the fly, earning a free kick).. we lose that competition 31-14. So we're stuck playing the ball on the ground, which is not so good. They stretch the lead to 20 after three..

Hawthorn kills off the game in the fourth.. every time we score, they score.. so we drop our second game of the season, and there are some alarming signs around the ground.

Hawthorn (12.12 84) defeats Collingwood (9.14 68) by 16 points.

Top Collingwood Goalkickers
Cloke (2.2)
Wood (2.2)
Five with 1 goal

[SirFozzie]

2011 Premiership Round 4: Collingwood (1-2, 89.7%) vs Melbourne (0-4, 77.0%)

We really need to be taking this game, and Melbourne looks like the kind of team we can do so. The Demons have had a bad start to the year, including a massive 61 point loss to Saint Kilda earlier in the year. We will have to stop their best scorer, Liam Jurah, who has 10 goals in four games so far (to provide a counterpoint, our top goal kicker, Alan Didak, has 4 in three games).

The first quarter is dull. Dull, Dull, and for a change, Dull. The two teams have ten scoring shots, only one of them a goal, and it isn't ours. We trail 1.3 to 0.6 (9-6).

The second quarter starts off horribly for us. We can only score a single behind in the first eight minutes, and Jurrah kicks two goals (fortunately for us, his only two goals of the game) to stretch the lead, and I can already hear the supporters call for me to be fired and/or drawn and quartered..

But the team wakes up from their lethargy and starts kicking goals like mad. In fact, both teams rain home goals like raindrops from the sky, it's kind of humbling when you score 6.2 in a quarter, and not even win the dang quarter (as they score 7.4).

At halftime it's Melbourne looking a good bet for their first win, leading (8.7 55) to (6.8 44).

We manage to chip away at the lead slowly but surely, scoring three goals in the quarter, and limiting Melbourne to two goals, as the two teams turn from home the lead is only 4.

The final quarter is a real doo-lilly, there are four lead changes in the first ten minutes of the quarter, and we show a good sense of urgency. We're still not quite as on-target as I'd like (3 goals, 5 behinds), but our defense holds..

We're up by six points late, with a minute and a half or so to go, and our defense is scrambling, the last ninety seconds or so are played pretty much inside our 50 meter line, but time and time again, we make the tackle and force a new restart (if you tackle a player with the ball who didn't have a chance to get rid of it first, it's a restart by a ball-up, a bouncing ball contested by the ruckmen).. with about 20 seconds left, we win a ruck cleanly, and punt the ball willy-nilly downfield, and the siren sounds before the Demons can get the ball back for one last kick at goal.

Whew!

Collingwood (12.16 88) defeats Melbourne (12.10 82) by 6 points

Top Collingwood Goalkickers
Dawes (2.2)
Wood (2.1)
Wellingham (2.0)
Six with 1

[SirFozzie]

Taking a break to look at the stats/standings..

All teams have 4-5 games in the book.

On the ladder (standings),

Saint Kilda and Geelong both have perfect records (5-0) so far, the Saints lead over the Cats by a better percentage. Carlton, Adelaide and Footscray all only have one lose (Footscray having played one less game), and Essendon, Hawthorn, and Freemantle round out the top 8.

Collingwood is just outside the eight right now.

At the bottom of the table, Richmond, Port Adelaide, and Melbourne have failed to win a game yet this year, all three teams 0-5.

On the scorer's side, the St Kilda Saints' Nick Riewoldt is having a storming start to the season.. the Saints have played five times, and Riewoldt has kicked THIRTY ONE goals on the season. That's an average over six a game! In comparison, the second best goal kicker in the league, Hawthorn's Jarryd Roughead has 19 so far, a shade under 4 a a game.



Nick Riewoldt: Goal-kicking MACHINE.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Nick Riewoldt: Goal-kicking MACHINE.

He is also capable of some pretty awesome marks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJGeSRJ5MMQ

(Adding the link because I can never get embedded video to work!)

[SirFozzie]

Neat stuff. More coming tonight, just dealing with an illness :P

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Neat stuff. More coming tonight, just dealing with an illness :P

Hope you have recovered Sir Fozzie and ready to resume your coaching career soon.

As an Australian, and one who passionately loves AFL, I'm really interested to see how you all go with this.
I've been playing and enjoying FOF since I discovered it with the 2004 iteration, and regularly read the posts and advice the experts provide on the game here without feeling in anyway knowledgeable to post!

I've long been waiting for an AFL management style game to emerge, but thought it would never happen due to the fact it's a niche gaming field, and adding to that AFL itself is by and large limited to a fairly local and small Australian market, which I feared would make it unattractive to a prospective game developer.

Thankfully it seems that someone has decided to take the challenge on and from what I have seen is endeavouring to make a serious fist of it.

I believe that a new patch is imminent which will further enhance the game and add to the long term appeal. So far as an avid AFL fan (a long suffering Western Bulldogs fan) I am impressed with the game, and whilst it has some way to go, the central tenets of the game are reproduced well, with the promise of an even more immersive game to evolve as time goes by.

Once again, I'm really looking forward to seeing how your game pans out SirFozzie, and if there is any way I can assist in understanding any elements of the game of AFL in general by all means feel free to ask.

I'll even put aside the fact that you have selected the team that causes the most division amongst fans in the AFL, in Collingwood.

They are a team that a person either really loves or loathes, I guess much like a team like the Cowboys of the 70 to 90's evoked amongst NFL fans.
For historically poor teams in the competition (like my Doggies) Collingwood (or The Filth as those with my convictions call them) are a source of much hatred (and to be honest jealousy).
Here are some general tips that may or may not be useful.

One general tip is make sure you manage your rotations carefully. Especially make sure you rotate your midfield (taking care to make sure your inside midfielders (that is Rover (R), Ruck Rover(RR), Centre (C) get sufficient rest. Obviously you do not want to rest all of your gun midfielders at the same time. Try to space the rotations out throughout the quarter.
The rotation system and interface in the game is one area that is in my opinion requiring alot of refinement to make it user friendly.

NB:Be aware that you can accidently end up with 4 interchange players (and therefore one less on the ground) if you are not careful when you are setting your rotations, especially when trying to set up complex multi positional rotations. My advice try to keep them as simple as possible and if you see in the rotation screen you have 4 players on the bench at one time, cancel the rotation screen and start again. Hopefully this is one feature which will be refined either in future patches or editions.

Ensure that you have at least one guy on the bench who you can rotate through those inside midfield positions, and who also has the ability to play up forward as a forward pocket (FP). This will ensure that you've got the ability to rest one of your inside mids in the forward pocket at times as an alternative to placing him on the bench.

Also ensure your Ruck rotation is rotating a like for like. That is to say with another ruckman. Again, for balance, if you've got ruckmen with some capacity to play up forward you can consider rotating them between these two positions, and therefore give your main ruckman a chance to recuperate in a less taxing role up forward for a couple of minutes each quarter.

Personally I tend to have my two ruckman rotate each other in the forward pocket/ruck two times each quarter, say 2-3 minutes in the middle of the quarter, and then say for the last two minutes of the quarter.

The advantage of having two versatile ruckmen who can by and large spend all their time on the ground, alternating between the FP and the Ruck is that it allows you to have a more flexible bench, instead of taking up a bench spot with a guy who can only play as either a Ruck and resting forward. The downside is that not too many ruckmen are truly versatile enough to be more than a secondary forward option.

It's also a good idea to have at least one small forward who would either play in the other forward pocket or Half forward flank, who has good defensive skills as well as speed and covering ground.

One of the real evolutions of the AFL game in recent times is the idea of creating forward defensive pressure. The simple premise being that the longer the ball is trapped inside your forward area the more scoring chances you will generate. If you've got forwards who can harrass defenders when they have the ball you can force them to make turnovers, which your forwards can then capitalise on.

Also if you notice that a certain midfielder on the opposition is getting on top and dominating, it can be useful at times if you have a player on your team who has "tagging skills".

A tagger is a guy whose sole responsibility is to negate an opposition player, while sacrificing his own game. He is proabably not going to get many possessions himself, however by employing him in a "tagging" role he may reduce the effectiveness of an opposition player enough to provide you with a tactical tool to get back into the game or to staunch an opposition who is on a roll. The downside can be, that you've effectively got one player less who is going to give you an offensive option as his sole job is to shut down a specific player.

From what I've read on the FOFC forum over the past few years, you guys as a group have an innate ability to analyse a game, and provide a unique perspective that has led to great improvements in the development of FOF. It would be great to see you on the Premiership Coach forum and to provide your insights into the game and help the evolution of this game.

The Premiership Coach forum and community is still relatively in it's infancy and would really benefit from any feedback you can provide that would improve the game.

Here's the link to the Premiership Coach forum
http://forum.premiership-coach.net/

Good luck with your game Sir Fozzie

[MacroGuru]

How's this going? Still playing?