How to play

Classic 9 is the full lineup — 2 DEF · 3 MID · 1 RUC · 2 FWD · 1 UTIL. Quick 5s is one of each line — DEF · MID · RUC · FWD · UTIL — the same rules in a shorter draft. Both formats keep their own records, streaks and Ladder boards, so a fives run never touches your classic stats.

The Daily has a Quick Daily sibling too — same puzzle-for-everyone idea, 5 picks instead of 9.

Nine picks build your Classic lineup: 2 DEF · 3 MID · 1 RUC · 2 FWD · 1 UTIL (the utility slot takes anyone). Each spin deals a random club and era — pick anyone from that squad who fits a spot you still have open.

Dual-position stars (think Dusty: MID/FWD) can fill either line. You get 1 re-roll to bin a weak draw. No player twice.

Any player can fill any open slot. On their listed lines (and at UTIL) they're worth their full rating. Thrown out of position, they're re-rated against real specialists of that role and era — a midfielder played forward is compared to actual forwards of the decade. The number shown in the assign panel is exactly what scores.

Conversions aren't equal: ruck conversions are the steepest discount, and swinging DEF↔FWD costs more than sliding one line over (DEF↔MID or MID↔FWD). UTIL takes anyone at full rating.

Star Wilds come in three tiers — each drops the normal club restriction on one pick. Bronze Wild is free once per game: choose anyone from every club of the drawn era. Silver Wild costs a silver charge and opens one club's whole history — every era. Gold Wild costs a (rarer) gold charge and unlocks anyone in the entire game.

Charges are a weekly allowance, and the size of it is how many of the 22 Immortals you own. One silver to start, up to four once you have collected most of them; the first gold at half the set, the second only when you have the lot. Nothing carries over, so nothing is ever wasted — Monday resets it.

The Daily is pure — no wilds at all, same puzzle for everyone. Wilds only exist in Unlimited.

The catch: a wild raises your draft-grade ceiling too. Picking the 3rd-best player of the decade on a gold wild still counts as leaving value on the table. Wild pulls land in your Collection as holographic cards, forever.

Every player you draft becomes a collector card. Rarity follows their era-adjusted rating: Immortal 95+ · Champion 90-94 · Star 84-89 · Gun 77-83 · Journeyman below that. The 22 Immortals are the chase.

That number counts cards, not men: a handful of greats were Immortal in two decades and hold a card for each, so those 22 cards belong to rather fewer than 22 players. Your Collection spells out how many.

Drafting the same player again levels the card frame: Silver ×3 → Gold ×6 → Holo ×10. Star Wild pulls are holographic from the first pull, regardless of count. There are no packs and no shop: the only way to own a card is to have picked the player.

Every card in your collection is a candidate for one side: the best legal lineup you could field from everyone you have ever drafted, with its own squad rating. Same slots, same off-position maths as a real draft.

It counts in every mode — a Daily you had no wilds for still adds 9candidates — and it grants you nothing in-game, so it can never tilt the Ladder. Send the link and your XI fights a mate's, line by line.

One side converges: everyone chases the same Immortals. So the Collection is ranked on your Collection score — every club's best side from your cards as a share of the best it could ever field, averaged across all of them, empty slots counting zero. Nineteen sides to build, and breadth is the hard part. Era sides are shown too.

Your draws set your ceiling; how close you pick to the best available decides how much of it you reach. The season plays out round by round against decade All-Stars — stronger teams win more, but nothing is guaranteed.

The number that matters is your side's average effective rating. Effective, because an off-position pick is re-rated against the real specialists of that line and that era, then discounted — a champion forward at full-back is still good, just not 99 good. Natural lines and the utility slot keep the full rating.

That average feeds a curve, not a straight line: the difference between a good side and a great one matters far more than the difference between a poor side and a bad one. Every round is a separate roll against a decade All-Stars team, so even a heavy favourite drops one occasionally — there is no score that guarantees the set.

Your draft grade measures the half you control: what you scored against the best you could have scored from the same draws. A perfect grade on ordinary draws is a better game than a sloppy grade on gifts.

23-0 needs elite draws and a near-perfect draft. Even then it only lands in a minority of seasons. That's the point.

Win 16+ and you book a finals berth: four cut-throat games against escalating All-Star sides. Finals are a lottery — even perfect seasons usually fall short of the cup. Win it all and you're premiers, with the Grand Final Medal going to your best afield.

Challenge links carry your actual team. Your mate drafts on the same spins, then battles you line vs line — defence, midfield, ruck, forwards, plus the X-factor duel between your best players. Best of 5 clashes settles it, same result for both of you. Records measure your draft; the Challenge settles it on the park.

A different game entirely — no draft, no season. Nine clues on a board and one three-minute siren. Name a player who fits a clue and the cell flips to their card and a fresh clue takes its place, so a good run is twenty-odd answers, not nine. A wrong name costs five seconds.

Scoring is pure rarity: every answer is worth more the fewer people who named that player for that clue. The obvious pick is worth a fraction of the deep cut, so the game isn't can you name one — it's can you name the one nobody else thought of. One scored run a day, and unlimited practice.

Flip the objective: build the worst possible team and chase 0-23. Draft the duds — low ratings, awkward positions, no stars. The grade is inverted with it, so a perfect spoon takes the same discipline a perfect season does.

There are no finals — nothing to play for in September is the entire point. The cards still land in your Collection either way, which makes it the quick way to fill out your Guns and Journeymen. Spooner badge for winning 3 or fewer.

Build the best team under 600 points (333 for a quick five). Stars are dear — spending big on a superstar means scrimping elsewhere. It's a soft cap: go over and your score is docked, not your draft blocked, so there's still a result, just a cheaper one.

Ratings are always on here — a pick's cost comes straight off its rating, so hiding one would leak the other — and there are no wilds. The puzzle: find the combination where elite picks outperform their cost, not just the individual superstars.

Pick one club and every draw is that club, cycling through the decades it existed in. No spin roulette — just how deep your club's history really runs, and whether you can name the 9 who prove it.

Same season, same finals, same cards. Win 20+ with one club and the True believer badge is yours.

Create a Private League and get a 6-character code to send your mates — a footy-tipping-style ladder that ranks members by weekly points, the same scoring as The Ladder's weekly board. No accounts, just your anon handle.

Up to 30 members per league. Anyone with the code can join; the ladder resets every ISO week so there's always a fresh race with your mates.

No ratings, no honours — just the raw per-game numbers and your footy knowledge. The Daily is always hard mode, one attempt, same spins for everyone. Share cards badge hard results so the flex is unambiguous.