The engine tracks each player's total seasonal minutes, last-start state, availability, positional distribution, and any ineligible roles.

For each roster generation, it evaluates all valid player combinations using a weighted utility function and selects the set that minimises variance in playing time. Players with fewer minutes seasonally and per-position (where applicable) are prioritised.

This creates a recursive balancing effect - each generation feeds back into the next - so the season converges toward an even distribution of game time.

See below for a full specification.

You set the rules. At set up of your team you nominate the size of your team, usual game length, number of periods, preferred number of interchanges and positions if required.

The app does its best to respect your rules while always first ensuring the team is filled. The app may also interchange more players at half-time and the final interchange if beneficial to the team.

Yes! You can mark specific positions as 'Less Desired'.

The algorithm recognises the sacrifice a player makes by playing these positions and applies a weighted 'time buff' to their utility score as a reward.

It ensures that the kid who helps the team is looked after in the remainder of the game - the goal is to balance fairness while respecting position difficulty.

Always. The app provides the most fair baseline, but as a coach or manager, you have the final say.

You can switch players to accommodate for late arrivals or mark players as ineligible for specific positions (eg. due to preference or training) and the system will intelligently route rotations around those constraints.

Eligibility rules may be ignored to ensure a full team can be rostered where required - however this is clearly flagged for your information.

The fairness is mathematical and calculated to be as even as possible given your team's specific circumstances.

Positional and team size constraints can introduce unavoidable inequality, however, the algorithm constantly minimises variance across the season.

You should see your fairness score steadily improve over time.

You can share a live roster link, grant full app access to assistants or export a roster as a PDF.

The system is designed to work alongside your existing communication tools, without forcing a new workflow.

Yes! EvenField uses real-time communication between devices, so any supporter or assistant who has the roster open in the app will be instantly notified whenever a change is made.

This ensures everyone is always looking at the latest version of the roster, even if they opened it before the change was made.

If you share rosters as PDFs, simply generate and share a new copy after making any changes.

Yes! For your peace of mind, the full logic and 'thinking' behind every generated roster is available.

You can see why the system chose a specific rotation, giving you total confidence if a parent ever asks for clarification.

This 'thinking' might even make some suggestions to help the fairness improve.

No, and that's by design. We don't want to force another communication method on your team.

Keep using your existing team chat (WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS etc.) and just share the EvenField roster link or the auto-generated text message there.