So, Ive recent gotten my hands on a copy of the 2011 edition of <a href="http://premiership-coach.info">Premiership coach[/url], and have been asked to give it a review in exchange for the opportunity to give 5 copies way to you guys. For those you who were here last year, I reviewed the 2010 version of this same game which came with a full review of my first year playing it. Im thinking Ill go the same method again, but point out along the way exactly whats different in this part compared to 2010, and for those that never played 2010, what it is that makes this such a great game.

(more over the break)
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First of all, let me just say, things havent been getting done on TS recently because Ive been pouring my spare time into this thing, Im a big fan- and am certainly happy to see another year of development put into it. From first booting it up, you get the feeling that the product is a lot more engaging than it was last year, the whole game is detailed through a newspaper which posts articles on whats going on around the league- which is pretty nifty. On a whole though, what impressed me most of all was that everything looks a nicer. Its easier to follow along with things, easier to manage the troops and prehaps the biggest on of all, its a lot more bug-free than it was last year! Sure, theres the odd bug that Ive noticed, but certainly nothing that makes the game painful to play.


Anyways, to start the review, I fired up a new career and started out as the fresh faced Matty Dayze, former superstar who was cruelly cut down at the start of his career, only to move into coaching and work his way through the ranks to the head coach of the Fremantle Docters- Yes, Im a docter, whooop whoop whoop whoop. (If you remember from last year, the team names are close to real, but not quite.)


As with last year, we started off with a full draft, I had pick 4, so with my first pick, went the strong choice in Nick Riewoldt. Top 3 picks were, Joel Selwood, Adam Cooney, Gary Ablett. This was followed by a very enjoyable hour (or two) in which I planned out a killer squad that was to be my starting place for a dynasty.

B : D. Milburn, M. Hurley, D. Fletcher
HB: M. Coad, R. Schoenmakers, H. Hocking
C : T. Scully, S. Sidebottom, A. Didak
HF: A. Monfries, N. Riewoldt, H. Bennell
F : C. Yarran, J. Riewoldt, N. Naitanui
Fo: M. Kreuzer, C. Rioli, J. Trengove
Int: A. Buchanan, A. McGrath, S. Atley, B. Sheppard

Rest of the list that didnt make the main 22.
J. Watts, S. Dempster, S. Day, B .Bucovaz, D. Talia, M. Watson, S. Lycett, S. Iles, S. Tape, J. Green, D. Polo, K. Hunt, D. Stanley, A. Hams, M. Suckling, S. Crameri, Z. Tuohy

A couple of things to note over the time Ive been playing- firstly, a strong forwardline is a huge advantage- although my midfield is the worst in the comp, when Roo isnt injured, Im the equal of anyone. Secondly, Fletcher and Milburn, because of their age, can net you two fantastic defenders for very cheap in the draft, which can help you sure up the other positions with earlier picks- certainly helped while I was allowing time for Talia and Watson to come of age.


One thing I like though is the high picks I was able to score, Kruezer and Rioli from the 2007 draft, Watts, Naitanui, Hurley, Yarran, Sidebottom and Schoenmakers from 2008, Scully, Trengove, Sheppard and Talia from the 2009 draft and Bennell, Day, Tape, Atley and Watson. In short, 17 first rounders from the last 4 years- Gold Coast, eat your hearts out! Just wish I could have gotten Swallow and Toy in as well, but hey, cant get them all I guess!


First thing I noticed is that the narrative of the game seems stronger, the newspaper is a lovely touch. It feels like youre being taken along on the journey. Just like last time though, the sheer amount of options availiable to you are mindblowing. It took me a good while to go through it all- but all enjoyable.


The first thing I did was head over to was the training, which at first glance seems to be more streamlined, and to be honest, I advanced time a few times before getting back here, but after getting an email telling me that I have spare cash in the footballing department, and that I should spend it on additional facilities, I thought it was a good idea to head over and have a look. I noticed the addition of specialist coaches so I headed straight over to the Staff tab to go and get a few. The guys I got on board, and the titles I gave them are:

Benny Cousins - Chief executive in head of keeping drinks cold.
Haselby - Ball skills.
Croad- (Alright, he was just picked up so I could give him the ass. Im Freo, if I get the chance to hire Tarrant, Ill do the same thing again!).
Barry - Pressure marks.
Mal Michael - Withering stares at the weeping.
P. Everitt- Ovalteen and other warm drinks.
W. Tredrea- Secretary.

Early days in training, I got an email informing me that Zach Tuohy was mouthy and bringing the team morale down in training. I gave him a bit of a serve. Happilly, he accepted my critisism, apologised and our relationship gained a +1. First win for the year. Liking the ability to interact with my players.

I didnt take long before my demand in an increase of training intensity, with Michael Coad doing his wrist at training- Personally, I like to blame the sub rule, not my overly demanding coaching style, but hey- what can you do? (Boom, topical comedy when I initially wrote this part of the review last week! Just shows how long its been going on!). On the plus side though, it opened me to the world of setting an individual workload for a player- a nice touch.

Now, just to go back to the email on football department spending, it took me a while to find it, but general spending can be allocated on the Finances tab (which comes with a swag of info). Just thought Id mention it cause I had to pull out the online manual to find how to do it! (Though looking at it now, I feel a little stupid!)

A series of articles throughout the pre-season ran through every squad and had a brief run down of their fans expectations- and a brief mention of their biggest strength. Sadly, we just had mention of our mighty membership numbers... I wonder if that means were awesomely well rounded, or just plumb getting ready for a pounding.

Our first game up was the "easy beats" - Melbourne. The tune was set with a 9 goal to 1 first quarter, finishing with a 24.19 163 to 10.11 71 win. Kruezer went down injured in the first quarter, leaving NitNat to take over the rucking duties- and over Brogan he dominated with 31 touches and 16 hitouts. Best on ground however went to Roo, who kicked a massive 8.2 off his own boot.

Port came next and with milburn injured early, we still managed to take it out 24.15 189 to 1.2 8, it was just like we were playing the Gold Coast!. Jack Roo responded well to my kind words before the game, which again, is a nice new touch to the game, kicking a massive 14 goals- comically, I moved him to the backline, which allowed Roo Snr to kick 4. Guess this is what happens when youre stuck playing Mitch Robinson against ones second tall forward!

Third game, we beat a pretty good Bombers outfit, but win it 19.9 123 to 10.4 64. Around now Im starting to wonder if the PC is "playing the kids" while Im just going all out - ah well, onto the NAB Final!

Oh wait, due to no "lightning round" in he NAB, theres one more round- but a 30 point win over Geelong sees the Doctors face it off in the granny against cross town rivals, West Coast. West Coast have the stronger team on paper, so Im gunna have to be on top of my game! So checking the team lists, we have Fisher on Roo, Hurley on Gumbleon and a Hawthorn inspired Campbell, Hodge, Mitchell midfield. A tight opening saw us go into the first break with a single point lead, however managed to extend the lead in the second quarter to go into the main break 16 points up. Extended the lead a little in the third to run out 23 point winners 11.17 to 9.6. Ashley MGrath staring with 31 touches and 3 goals in a BOG performance. So now were $584,929 richer and should get a few more members leading into the season proper.

So, lets start off with a quick look at the finals odds- Richmond and Brisbane have both been given 2.1 odds to make the granny this year, North and West Coast are at 6.1 Meanwhile Footscray, St. Kilda, Freo and Essendon are all sitting at 25.1 - Guess the bookies didnt watch the pre-season!

Anyways, we finished the season with a 20-2 record and headed into the finals looking good. Im thinking that since the game tends to lean towards the old footballing creed of a good spine wins games, rather than get a bunch of midfielders- that my drafting was spot on. Also helped that Hurley and Schue increased a bunch through the season, and with Fletch and Milburn made it very difficult for opposition coaches to score on us.

Throughout the season, after micro managing the first half of the season, I got a good feeling as to how my team could run out a game and started developing rotation lists based on them- it certainly made playing through the games a heck of a lot quicker. If youre after a quick tip on what my rotations ended with, it was basically- run with the key mids for 13 minutes, then sub off the middle 3 at the 13th minute, sub off the wings and ground running HFFer at the 17th minute andswitch up my ruck with the 3rd tall towards the end of each quarter. With a good fitness base the players can run it out, no troubles. Speaking of a good fitness base, I also figured out along the way to spend up on staff- Just get the best avaliable at any time, sure, they might leave if poached, but hey, I had Dean Laidley as a specialist coach at one stage and it was awesome!

At the end of the home and away, I liked that when Hardwick and Scott got given the arse, that I was offered the chance to fill in for them, should make for an interesting change when I get this team to be just too awesome to keep going with.

So, the grand final rolled round, and we were taking on cross town rivals (again), which was the team we lost to earlier in the year, West Coast. It was a tight game, but we strode out 4 point winners, thanks to a 7 goal effort by goal sneak, Chris Yarran- go you star! That said, he was reported for a level 5 stomping offence... As a side note, the next year, we wound up playing the West Coast again, but this time, a 2 week injury to Roo in the prelim saw us struggle to score and we failed to go bak to back.

After all the footballing, again comes the off-season and pre-season. Heres where all the good work of your scouts comes to fruition (you brought a bunch of those guys right? Cause there bargains in them roughs!). Funnily, the preseason is one of the parts of the game I enjoy most- it all runs very smoothly, though trade week was a bit of a disaster- cause everyone is still so close (having drafted on equal terms the year before), they all saw themselves as contenders next year and didnt want a bar of trading anything! Still, should be fun in upcoming years, particularly with the over abundance of young talent Ive got in my list!

As the season came to a close, my awesome coaches that Id been hoarding got poached by the other clubs, but thats to be expected- and hey, a couple of bucks later, I was able to poach them back.

And that was the year- its was a heck of a lot of fun, and offers a few insights into a few of the foibles of running a footy club. A couple of the key lessons Ive learnt are:

- If you played 2010, youd notice the huge difference it makes only being able to rotate through 3 bench places rather than 4- you gotta feel for the coaches!
- more than that though, when brought down to 2 interchange spots, it fricking hurts.
- Managing a list, and the players expectations is something you need to consider- just because you have 20 of your 22 availiable each week (minus 2 injuries on average), it doesnt mean you should play them. Getting gametime into the kids helps with their development and no gametime tends to make them think about looking elsewhere for their cut.
- Hurley is a fricking awesome fullback.

And that I reckon will do for the review, its already a phonebook! In short though, the game is awesome, Ive been a big fan of management style games for years now and this one ticks a hell of a lot of boxes, the key one being- its about manageing my favourite sport!

Now, the part you are all waiting for, how can you go into the running for one of five copies of the game (and I warn you- it will eat your free time and your wife will roll her eyes)- simply answer the following question in the comments and Ill draw the winner out of a hat:

Assuming the first 5 picks were: Selwood, Cooney, Ablett, Riewoldt and Swan- who would be your selection if youve got the 6th pick and why?

Oh, and while youre think of youre answer, check out their site: <a href="http://premiership-coach.info">Premiership coach[/url] - have a read through the <a href="http://premiership-coach.info/?page_id=23">manual[/url] to get idea of just how much is in this game!