Welcome to Ultimate Footy

Here you'll find all of the information you'll ever need about playing Ultimate Footy. Get information on each area of the game works, read through the detailed game information available here, as well as the Frequently Asked Questions at the top of each section which provide answers to some of the most popular queries about the competition.

You can also always Contact Us if you have any further questions and feedback.

How to Play

• Ultimate Footy is a draft-style fantasy AFL game that gives you complete control over how you play. The first step is to join or create a league with friends who you'll compete head-to-head with for the league premiership.

• All leagues kick off the season with an interactive player draft. You assume the role of an AFL selector, going pick for pick against the other coaches in your league to draft the best team possible. Once a player is drafted no-one else can pick him, so make your selections wisely!

• Once you've drafted your team you'll play off against the other teams in your league. For each round of the AFL season you'll be matched up against another coach, putting your real coaching skills to the test.

• From your squad of players you'll be required to pick a starting lineup that will represent your team on match day. The real-life performance of these players will earn stats for your fantasy team. The aim of the game is to beat your opponent by accumulating more points or stats than they do.

• Over the season you'll have to deal with injuries to players and form slumps. This is where the Player Market comes in. You'll be in charge of making the tough calls - delisting under-performers and replacing them with in form unowned players.

• Sometimes trades will be required to help bolster certain positions on your team. Through trading, you can improve your team by proposing a swap of players with another coach in your league. Nothing beats negotiating a big trade with one of your fellow coaches and pulling the trigger on a blockbuster deal!

• At the end of the season the top teams in your league will play off in a finals series to determine the holy grail of bragging rights - the league premiership! Even if you don't make the premiership finals the bottom teams will still play off for a consolation finals cup.

The Ultimate Footy difference

The biggest difference between Ultimate Footy and other fantasy AFL games is that a draft is used to pick your team rather than a salary cap. This means that only one person in your league can own each player, so if you own the leagues best player no-one else can! This makes the game much more like the real thing and you really get to "own" your players.

However it's not only is it the draft-style element that sets Ultimate Footy apart. We also offer an unrivaled degree of customisation to give you complete control over your league rules. It's easy to change settings such as squad sizes, scoring formula and number of trades among many more options.

Here's just a few features that set us apart from the competition:

• Three different ways to run your draft - something to suit everyone.
• Highly customisable settings let you play by your own rules.
• Mobile responsive site lets you manage your team on the go.

Want More Info?

For more information about the various parts of the game such as the draft, signing and trading players, finals and more please read the relavent pages of this help section.

Can't find what you're looking for? Need help with your league? If so then you can submit your feedback using the link below.

Contact Us

Once you're logged in you have to join a league. You have 3 options:

Create a Custom League

Create a league that only your friends can join or a league open to everybody. You can customise everything; Scoring Method, Lineup Size, League Rules, Draft Type and much more. Or you can use our default settings and get your league running in no time.

Throughout the league setup wizard there are handy tips explaining all the various functionality. If there's any settings your unsure of thats ok - you're able to change all settings even after you've created your league.

Browse for a Custom League

Join a league created by a friend or colleague, or find a publicly available custom league with settings that suit your style. If you're keen on trying a live draft this is a great place to search for open leagues with settings that suit your preferences.

Join a Public League

The quickest way to get into the action is to sign up for one of our Public Leagues. Simply click this option and you'll be placed in a league with other keen fantasy coaches. All public leagues use Ultimate Footy's standard settings.

All Public Leagues conduct an Autopick draft that occurs at Midnight AEST the day after the final team has joined the league. Autopick drafts are used in Public leagues to ensure that no coach is disadvantaged by not being availble for a certian draft time

Selecting a Team Name and Logo

Once you've joined a league it's possible to change your team name and club colours. Go to the My Team page and click the Edit Team link to make your desired changes.

Note that Ultimate Footy reserve the right to change any offensive team names without warning.

Draft Types

In Ultimate Footy each AFL player can only be owned by one team, so a Pre-Season Draft is used to select your side for the upcoming season. Unlike other fantasy AFL games where the draft is a drawn out process over several weeks, Ultimate Footy will have your draft complete within hours so you don't have to wait to start playing!

The draft order is randomised every time a new team joins the league, and the current order is displayed in the RFA column of your league ladder. From round to round the draft order reverses, so if you get the first pick in the first round you will have the last pick in the second round and then the first pick of the third round and so on. Alternatively, if you are in a custom league, your league manager can set the draft order manually.

There are currently four draft types available: Live Online, "Slow" Online, Autopick and Single Computer / Manual.

To take advantage of our Online Drafts, you will need to either create a custom league or join a custom league using a Online Draft. Similarly Single Computer / Manual drafts are only available to Custom Leagues because they require drafts to be conducted externally. Autopick drafts used for all Public Leagues, but are available to custom leagues as well.

Read more about the different draft types below.

Live Online Draft

Live Drafts are the most exciting way to get into the action. You'll log online with the rest of your league where each coach is given 1 minute per pick (by default) and picks are displayed live as they happen. To keep things moving, if a coach is not online for the draft they get a reduced time of 10 seconds per pick. If they join later in the draft their time resets to the full time limit allowed i.e. 1 minute.

Custom leagues have the ability to set the number of seconds allowed per pick. The options range from 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

Thanks to this unique setup our Live Drafts only take between 1-2 hours, not 1-2 weeks!

If you can't make it to draft day, or can't stay for the full time, you can still participate by submitting Pre-Draft Player Rankings. This is a way to rank your preferences of which players you would like to select, then when it comes to your pick the system will choose your highest ranked player that is still available.

Even if you don't submit Pre-Draft Rankings your team will still be drafted according to the Ultimate Footy projected rankings, a carefully constructed ranking list made specifically for assisting with the draft. It factors in player performance over the last few seasons, potential improvement or deterioration as well as average draft position from other drafts.

"Slow" Online Draft

"Slow" Online Drafts operate similar to Live Online Drafts, but rather than 1 minute per pick coaches can have up to 24 hours. This allows more time for coaches to analyse each selection and may involve the draft stretching over a week or two. This style of draft may also be useful if your league can't find a time where everyone is available for a live draft.

To keep the draft ticking over each coach can set up a short list of preferred players and autopick preferences. Emails alerts are also used to notify coaches when it's their pick.

Autopick Draft

Autopick drafts do just what the name suggests, drafts your team automatically. Each team in the league has the option of setting Pre-Draft Player Rankings, which are used to draft players.

The Autopick system works by selecting the highest-ranked available player (based first on your pre-rankings and then our default rankings) at the time of each pick.

Our draft algorithm will ensure you select enough players to fill out you starting squad, using your last few picks to select the highest ranked players in any position that might be undermanned.

Single Computer / Manual Draft

This option is great if you want to conduct your draft manually and just submit the results to us. A draft day is always a great way to kick off a fantasy season so if you can get your mates organised we recommend it, and then let Ultimate Footy run the competition for you.

To make the recording of picks easier a Single Computer Draft screen is available. This includes a player list, a list of recent and upcoming picks as well as countdown clock to make sure teams don't take too long.

Pre-Draft Rankings

If you can't make it to draft day, or can't stay for the full time, you can still participate by submitting Pre-Draft Player Rankings. This is a way to rank players from your most preferred to least preferred, and will be used by our system to choose the highest ranked undrafted player each time it becomes your pick.

Pre-Draft Rankings can be accessed by going to Draft > Edit Pre-Draft Rankings. Simply drag and drop or use the arrows to move players up and down this list until you've formed your preferred order. Everyone has players they don't want to pick which is why you can move players straight to the bottom of the list if you're not a fan. If you've already set a ranking list in another league and want to copy it across simply hit the Import Rankings button and select which league to import from.

Even if you don't submit Pre-Draft Rankings your team will still be drafted according to the Ultimate Footy projected rankings, a carefully constructed ranking list made specifically for assisting with the draft. It factors in player performance over the last few seasons, potential improvement or deterioration as well as average draft position from other drafts.

Restoring a Keeper League

The end of the season doesn't have to mean the end of your fantasy league. "Keeper Leagues" are a great way to run your league over multiple seasons, meaning you can keep the team list you worked so hard to build!

All Ultimate Footy leagues are automatically eligible to be operated as keeper leagues so you can return next season and keep playing. Similarly if you've played previously or already operate a keeper league using spreadsheets it's possible to import your team lists prior to the draft.

League managers can import previous seasons lists prior to the draft by going to Tools > Edit Draft Selections. Here you'll see a list of draft picks with a field to let you type in the player to assign to each pick. You're not required to fill out every pick for every team - any picks that don't have a player allocated to them are able to be used by that team in the Pre-Season Draft to draft from the unowned player pool.

Ultimate Footy uses a unique "Category-Based" scoring system which differs from more commonly used Points-Based" systems like AFL Fantasy.

Category-Based

Category based scoring system is based on the hugely popular American fantasy sports games and creates a much more dynamic game for the coaches involved. Teams go head to head each week to out score their opponent in as many of the statistical categories as possible. The team who wins the most categories wins the match.

Similar to the Point Scoring method, the players selected in each teams' starting lineup gather stats based on their real life AFL performances every weekend. These stats are then totaled up in each of the different scoring categories and compared to their opponents' totals to determine who had the highest total score. Whichever team out scores their opponent in more categories is credited with winning the match.

If you've never ventured outside of other fantasy games and are unfamiliar with American fantasy sports games then you've probably got more than a few questions, so let us explain the benefits of the Category scoring system...

With ordinary point scoring system the aim of the game is simple, just pick players who score the most fantasy points. It is very one dimensional and picking players requires little thought outside of is this player undervalued and do they score enough points. Everything has been standardised so there is only one number to consider.

By using a category based scoring system the game becomes multi-dimensional and allows for the use of much more strategy. Here you have the freedom to build a team to play whichever way you want! With the use of a draft and the ability to trade with other teams, you are able to pick and trade your way to a team that suits your style.

For example, you might choose to pick high possession players if you want to compete strongly in Kicks, Handballs and Marks. Or maybe you'd like a team that plays hard and efficient to win you Tackles and Free kicks. Then again if you want to pile on the goals you can trade for a great forward line to help you in win the Score and Goal Kicking Accuracy categories. The best teams will be the ones that can get a good mix in all, but with wins required in only half of the categories on offer you can play however you like!

Customisation

The exact scoring formula can be customised to suit your league. The league manager can change the formula anytime before the draft.

Note that in Public leagues, only the standard Ultimate Footy scoring formula is available.

League Fixture

Each week you'll go head-to-head with someone else in your league. It works just like the real AFL. If you win, you get a W and your position in the ladder improves. Lose and you're probably moving down the ladder.

This continues until finals, where the final ladder positions determine who will compete for the ultimate prize in your league. Full details of finals formats are found below.

League Medal

After each match in your league, 3-2-1 votes are awarded at the end of each match to the most influential players on the field. For leagues that use a points-based scoring system this means the players with the highest scores for the round will be most likely to get maximum votes, with some extra weight given to players from the winning team.

In leagues using category based scoring the voting system is more complex, more weight is given to players who have had the biggest impact in getting their team get across the line in several categories.

Finals Formats

By default every Ultimate Footy league culminates with a finals series over the last 3 or 4 rounds of the AFL season. Even if you don't make the premiership finals in your league, your team will still fight it out in the consolation finals.

The structure of the finals is dependant on the amount of teams in your league.

PLUS Formats

Features PLUS leagues have the option to customise the finals structure for their league, and also choose which rounds of the AFL season their finals are run over.

Finals Tiebreakers

In the event of a drawn finals match, the higher-ranked team on the ladder at the end of the season will be deemed the winner, moving through to the next stage.

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.

Signing/Delisting process

Quite often you'll find yourself with players who aren't performing while some unowned "Free Agents" are having big games. To delist a player without replacement, simply click the "Delist Players" link at the top of your Team page. If you want to sign and delist a player in the same transaction, it is easier to just go to the Player Market and click the Sign Player icon next to the player you want to pick up. You will be prompted to select a player you want to Delist and then to confirm the move. Players cannot be Delisted if they are in any pending trade offer or Restricted Free Agent request.

Once a player is Delisted they become a Restricted Free Agent for a default period of two days. During this time each coach in the league can put in a request to sign the player if they desire. At the end of the waiting period the coach who applied with the highest Restricted Free Agent Priority is awarded with the player. If no coaches have made a request after two days then the player becomes an free agent where they are free to be signed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Once you have signed a new player they are added to the end of your bench and it is up to you the coach to move them into a starting position.

Restricted Free Agents

When a player is delisted they become a restricted free agent for a period of two days. During this time each coach in the league can put in a request to sign the player if they desire. At the end of the waiting period the team who applied with the highest Restricted Free Agent priority is awarded with the player. If no teams make a request for the player before the waiting period is up the player becomes an free agent where they are free to be signed by anyone on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Note that custom leagues can change the default two day restricted free agent period, or disable restricted free agents all together.

Restricted free agent claims are processed at Midnight AEST each day. This means you have until 11:59 pm AEST to put in a claim for a player who's waiting period is due to expire.

This means that in order for a player successfully requested to be eligible to play for your team in a given round, their waiting period must expire before the day of the first game of the round.

You can find the date and round for which your claim will be processed by clicking the 'View' link next to the request on your team page.

Restricted free agent priority

Restricted free agent priority is the priority that each team has when requesting a restricted free agent. In the example of a 10 team league, each team will have a priority ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 being the "highest" or best priority, and 10 being the lowest or worst priority. If two teams request the same restricted free agent the one with the higher priority will successfully sign the player at the end of the restricted free agent period.

You can check each team's restricted free agent priority at any time from the Restricted Fa column of your league's ladder.

Initially this order is set to be the reverse order of the last round of your draft. Over time this order will change, since teams that are successful in signing restricted free agents will move to the bottom of the order.

Note that league managers in custom leagues have the ability to manually set this order. Custom leagues can also choose to have restricted free agent priorities reset to reverse ladder order after each round. This helps teams down the bottom of the ladder by giving them first choice at restricted free agents.

Weekly deadlines

To be able to play newly signed players in an upcoming round they must be signed before the first game of the round commences. So basically the players that are on your list when the first game of each AFL round kicks off are the ones eligible to play for you that week.

Any players signed after the start of the round will still be added to your team, although you won't be able to play them until the next round.

Signing Limits

Select the maximum number of free agent signings that each team is allowed over the course of the season.

Choose 'No Season Limit' to impose no restrictions on the number of signings each team can make.

Choose 'No Acquisitions Allowed' if you don't want coaches to be able to sign players to their team after the draft.

"Weekend" Signing Lockout

Choose whether teams are allowed to sign and delist players when a round of AFL matches is in progress.

No Restrictions (default): Signing and delisting of players continue as normal.

Unowned players become Restricted Free Agents: All unowned players become restricted free agents until midnight the day following the last AFL game of the round. This is a useful way to provide fairer access to players whose value might change during the round (e.g. rising stars, injury replacements) by way of restricted free agent priority, as opposed to a first-come first-served basis.

Proposing Trades

To propose a trade, go to your team page and select the "Propose Trade" link at the top. This will allow you to select the team and players you want to trade. An email is sent to the other coach offering your proposed trade. That coach can then go to their team page to view the proposal, accept it, decline it, or make a counter offer. There must be consent from both coaches for a trade to be completed. If your trade is rejected, you receive an email notifying you of that result.

Trade Review Period and Protesting trades

If an offer is accepted there will be a two day pending period in which the entire league is notified and coaches can review the deal. In leagues that use Coach Votes to review trades, each coach can choose to vote against the trade if they think it is unfair. If at least one third of the coaches in the league vote against a deal, it is vetoed. In Custom leagues where trade review set to League Manager, the league manager has the power to veto any deals, or skip the two day waiting period to process the trade immediately.

Once a trade passes the waiting period without objection, the trade is processed and its results reflected on each team's lineup and shown in the Player Movement log.

For a trade to be valid, all players involved must still be on the same team they were when the deal was accepted. If they aren't, the trade is automatically rejected. To prevent players involved in pending trades from being delisted or proposed in other offers, coaches are not allowed to make transactions involving any players involved a trade once it has been accepted.

Deadline for weekly trades

Like waivers, any trades that pass the waiting period without objection will be processed at midnight following the pending period. For a trade to be reflected in your lineup for a given week, it must have been processed prior to the first AFL game of the round.

You can find the date and round for which a successful trade will be processed by clicking the ‘View’ link next to the pending trade on your team page.

In Ultimate Footy it is possible for players to gain position eligibility over the course of the season. We like to keep things as realistic as possible so if something changes in real-life you'll see it here in the game too.

Since this may be a new concept to fantasy players we've listed answers to some of the more common questions below:

How often are player positions reviewed and changed?

Players are reviewed after Round 5, 11 and 17 to determine if they have been playing primarily in a position that they are not eligible for in Ultimate Footy. We follow the guidance of AFL Fantasy with regards to position changes and are based on offical player tracking data.

Any free agents that are awarded new position eligibility will be made a restricted free agent for a period of one day. This provides a more equitable opportunity for coaches to sign these players. Note that players will only be added to restricted free agents in leagues that have enabled restricted free agents.

Can players lose positions?

No. We will only ever add new positions, never remove them. This would disadvantage teams who draft players to fill a specific position.

What if our league doesn't want positions to change?

Not a problem. Although all public leagues will be subject to position changes, all private leagues have the ability to opt-out of changes. Your league manager can simply select "Lock Original Positions" on the Edit League Settings page at any time during the season.

Do players with changes get added to restricted free agents to give fairer access?

Yes. In leagues that use restricted free agents any free agent that is awarded a new position will be made a restricted free agent for a one day period.

If you're in a PLUS league that doesn't want to follow these rules your league manager can manually adjust any players' restricted free agent status by going to Tools > Edit Restricted Free Agents.

Can I suggest some changes?

You may, but position changes are provided by AFL Fantasy based on official tracking data. We will be applying the position changes provided to us and won't be deviating from this list.

What's the maximum number of positions a player can earn?

Two. So even if a B/C has been playing primarily as a forward we will not award them forward eligibility because they are already eligible for two positions.

Where can I view a list of the positions changes?

A list of all changes made since the start of the season is available from Players > Position Changes or can be accessed here.

What if our league doesn't agree with the positions changes?

You can either Lock Original Positions as mentioned above, or alternatively use the Edit Player Positions tool available to PLUS leagues to customise player positions on an individual basis.

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