Team Structure

Your team is divided into three main areas - the starting lineup, emergencies and bench.

Starting Lineup

Players named in your starting lineup will earn points for your team on a weekly basis. Filling your starting lineup with your best players each week will give you the best chance of winning your match. If one of your starters missed their game for whatever reason they will be replaced by an emergency (see below).

Custom leagues can customise the number of players that make up the starting lineup. They can also include "Utility" slots (UTL) that allow any player teams to start any player, regardless of their position eligibility.

Emergencies

Emergencies act as insurance for your starting lineup by earning stats only if one of your starters does not play in a given week. So if for example one of your starting forwards is a late scratch from their AFL game, your emergency forward will be called upon and their stats will contribute to your teams totals.

Custom leagues can also select to have emergencies cover any position. Under this setting you list emergencies in order and they cover any player who doesn't play, regardless of position. For example If a starting Back and starting Forward don't play, the players selected in emergency positions one and two will come in, even if they're not eligible to play Back or Forward. Custom leagues can also choose to have no emergencies at all.

There are two more factors that determine whether an emergency player is activated...

Time on Ground Threshold

Leagues now have the ability to use Time on Ground Percentage to control whether a player is replaced by an emergency. So if say a minimum of 20% of game time is selected, any player who plays 20% or less of their match will be replaced by an emergency.

The threshold can be set by league managers, with anything from 0% to 50% able to be selected. We suggest 20% if you want to cover only players who are injured early in a match. In point-scoring leagues if the player due to be replaced has scored more than the emergency, the original player will remain in the team. In category leagues the substitution will happen based solely on highest time on ground percentage.

By default the Time on Ground threshold is set at 20%. This is also used for all Public Leagues. League managers of private leagues can change this by going to Tools > Edit League Settings > Lineups.

Emergency Coverage

By default emergencies will no longer cover "empty" spots in your starting lineup. Only players in your starting lineup that don't play will be replaced. This avoids coaches manipulating the emergency system by moving playes out of the lineup to gain a high scoring emergency's score (a.k.a "emergency loophole").

Private leagues that still wish to allow "empty" lineup slots to be covered by emergencies can enable this by having their league manager go to Tools > Edit Lineup Settings.

Bench

Players on the bench (BN) are unable to contribute whatsoever on match day, they are there mainly to provide extra depth for your side throughout the season or allow you to carry injured players until they return to health. So even if you have starters and emergencies who don't play, under no circumstances will your bench players step in as cover.

Moving players

Setting your lineup is made easy with the "click to swap" player list. Simply click a player to select them, then click the available lineup slot you'd like to move them to. Available lineup slots will highlight once you've selected a player to move.

If a player has been locked for the round they can not be moved, any no players can be moved into their position.

Please note that lineup changes aren't saved automatically! Once you've finished making changes you must click the Save Changes button to save your lineup.

Setting captains

In leagues that have enabled captains you are required to nominate a Captain and Vice-Captain each week from your playing list. Captain's earn double points or stats, and if your Captain doesn't play for whatever reason your Vice Captain will earn double instead.

Similar to lineup changes, Captain and Vice Captain selections become locked in once your captain lockout comes into play.

Lineup lockout deadline

In the leadup to each AFL round you can move players around your lineup as much as you like. Once the AFL round commences however players will become locked into position, the timing of which depends on your leagues Lineup Lockout setting. To allow you to choose your preferred rules Ultimate Footy provides the following lineup changes lockout options:

First Saturday Game Of The Round (default): No changes can be made after the first Saturday game of the round has commenced. Players who play prior to the first Saturday game are locked once their game commences. This setting is used by all public leagues.

First Game Of The Round: No lineup changes can be made after the first AFL game of the round has commenced.

Individual Game Time (a.k.a Rolling Lockout): Coaches can move players between bench and starting positions as long as both players being moved are yet to have their team play.