Trial games and internal matches

Not every game is in the league draw. A trial game is a match against another club that the league doesn't run: a pre-season hit-out or a friendly. It's a real match, with a lineup, live tracking and footage, but it stays out of the season's numbers.

An internal match is different: filmed training, with two groups from one squad in bibs. It has no lineup, opponent or score, so it's footage only. You make it from its Veo recording in Presentations, it never appears as a match anywhere, and nobody is notified. Internal matches covers how.

On your programme's Matches page, choose Add trial game at the top right. On a phone it's the + at the top of the screen. The button is there for anyone who can set the squad's lineup. The form names the squad the game goes to under Squad; where the page covers several squads, pick one there first. The confirmation names it again.

1. Choose the Opponent from the clubs you play, or type a club that isn't listed, then choose Home or Away.
2. Set the Date, Kickoff and, if you know it, the Ground.
3. Leave the notification switch on or turn it off (below). Then choose Add trial game.

The game appears in the squad's fixtures with Trial where a league match shows its round. Open it like any other match to pick the team, track it live and review it afterwards.

On the Australian Championship, the competition's own draw comes first. Your next trial game is shown under its headline match with a Trial label beside the opponent, and every trial game is listed under the draw in Club trial games, on Fixtures before it's played and on Results afterwards. A programme dashboard's Next match card names the next trial game the same way.

The switch is on by default, so a trial game behaves like any fixture: match reminders, the result and new clips go out as usual. Who gets them depends on the squad:

• For a senior squad, the switch reads Notify players and messages go to the players.
• For a junior squad, it reads Notify families and messages go to families and players.

Turn it off for a trial you'd rather keep quiet, such as a closed one. Players and families get no reminders, result, clips or Live Activity for it, but the game still shows on their calendars and fixture lists. Coaches still get their own reminders.

A cancelled or postponed match sends no reminders, whatever the switch says.

Trial games never appear on the club's public Live page or website, which show the league and competition draw only. An internal match never notifies anyone.

Trial games don't count towards season stats. Appearances, minutes, goals and cards from them stay with the match itself and never reach season totals, game-time figures, Veo season averages or suspensions. A player whose only game so far was a trial shows 0 appearances, not a blank.

Everything about the match itself is kept: its lineup, events, notes, footage and presentations.

You can add a trial game after the day it was played. It starts with notifications off, so nobody is sent a reminder or a result for a game that's already over. Turn the switch on afterwards in Edit match if you do want the result to go out.

Open a past trial game and Clubhouse asks for its lineup, the same way it does for a junior match nobody tracked live. Once the lineup is in, record the goals and cards to set the final score, and the H2H tab opens against that opponent.

Open the match and choose Match Settings. Edit match changes the opponent, kickoff, ground and the notification switch. Change status postpones, reschedules or cancels it.

If the game's notifications are on and it's within 21 days, a change goes through the usual fixture change review before anyone is told, exactly as for a league fixture. If they're off, the change saves quietly.

Once a trial game has a result, Edit match still changes the ground and the notification switch, but shows the opponent, date and kickoff as fixed.

Veo doesn't link a trial game to its recording on its own: two games a day apart are too easy to cross. Link it yourself from the match's Video tab:

1. Once the game has kicked off, open it and go to Video. Recordings from the squad's Veo team within three days of the game are listed. If the squad has no Veo team mapped yet, the tab says so and lists the club's unmapped Veo teams with recent footage, so the right one can be mapped from there.
2. Choose Link on the right one, then Link recording. Clips sync within a few minutes and the match review deck is prepared automatically.

Linked the wrong one? Unlink under the footage puts it back on the list. Presentations built on the match lose their footage until another recording is linked.

A deck built on a trial game is titled against the opponent with a Trial match label.

Why can't I see Add trial game? It shows on the Matches page for staff who can set the lineup of the squad in view, including the Australian Championship squad. If you coach a different squad, switch to yours.

Where did Add a match → Internal match go? Internal matches are made from their recording in Presentations now. Internal matches explains.

Can I turn a trial game into a league match? No. League fixtures come from the league's draw. If the league adds the game later, it arrives as its own fixture. Cancel the trial with Change status.