Help

Quick answers, and short guides to each part of Play Onside. The same guides are in the app under Me → Help.

Questions

Guides

• 👋 Getting started
• 👥 Circles
• 📅 Planning a game
• ✅ Booked a ground or court?
• 🙏 Leave pass: ask the boss
• 🏏 Game day
• 📋 Team sheet
• 🍻 After the game
• 🤝 Find a partner
• 🏏 Shot guides
• 🏆 Your stats and badges
• 🛡️ Privacy and safety

👋 Getting started

What Play Onside is for, and setting up your profile.

1. Play Onside is for adults (18+) who play sport with a regular crew. It's built around one question: who's really coming?
2. Set your sports, your level and your home suburb. Other players see your suburb, never your address.
3. Turn on notifications so you hear when a game's planned, when check-in opens and when someone's running late.
4. Start a circle for your crew, or find one near you. Games, chat and polls all happen inside a circle.

👥 Circles

Your regular crew: start one, invite people, choose who can find it.

1. Start a circle with a name, a sport, a colour and your home ground. You're its captain.
2. Share the invite code or link from the circle page. Anyone who has it can join.
3. Choose who can find it. Private: Invite code only. Never shows in search. Findable: Shows in search. People ask to join and the captain says yes or no. Open: Shows in search. Anyone can join straight away.
4. Requests to join show on the circle page for the captain to say yes or no.
5. Spotted a typo? The captain can fix the name, ground, colour and who can find it with the pencil on the circle page.
6. Looking for a crew? Search circles near you by sport and level.

📅 Planning a game

Plan it, see who's really in, and nudge the rest.

1. Open a circle and tap Plan a game (or + in the chat). Pick the day, time, how long, the kind of game, the ground and how many players you need.
2. Pin the ground with Use where I am or Find on map. Everyone gets directions, and the game gets a weather forecast.
3. Everyone answers In, Maybe or Out. When it's full, extra players go on a waitlist and move up by themselves if someone drops out.
4. Whoever planned it, or the captain, can nudge everyone who hasn't answered: once every 3 hours, so it never turns into spam.
5. Can't agree on a day? Start a poll in the chat first. When it closes, tap Plan it on the winner.
6. Need to change something? Use Edit game on the game page. If the time or ground changes, everyone who's in gets told. You can also call a game off.
7. Can't play some weekends? Mark them once in Me > Away dates. Your circles see them on Who's available, the captain sees who's away while planning, and you won't be nudged for those days.
8. Tap Add to calendar on a game to put it in your phone's calendar.
9. Match fees: whoever planned it, or the captain, ticks who's paid. Money is sorted outside the app, so post how to pay in the chat. Each player sees whether they're marked as paid.

✅ Booked a ground or court?

Already booked it with the council, club or venue? Let everyone know the details.

1. Tap Booked a ground? on Home and pick the circle. With a sport picked at the top it says court, lane or tee time instead, and only shows that sport's circles.
2. Tick that it's already booked and add the pitch, court or lane, the umpire or ref, the cost each and who booked it.
3. The game shows ✅ Booked with the details, so nobody has to ask in the chat.
4. Next time, the details from your circle's last booking are filled in for you. Change anything that's different.

🙏 Leave pass: ask the boss

Keen, but need the OK at home first? Apply for leave, very formally.

1. On a game page, tap Need the boss's OK first? Apply for leave under the In, Maybe, Out buttons.
2. Pick what you'll offer in return (groceries, bins, home by…), then tap Send to the boss. Your phone opens a very formal request to send by WhatsApp or text.
3. The boss taps the link and picks Approved, Approved (home by…) or Denied. They don't need the app.
4. Until then you show as 🙏 Boss? and count as waiting on the boss. Approved puts you in (or on the waitlist if it's full). Denied marks you out.
5. You get a notification either way, and the circle chat finds out too. Answer In or Out yourself at any time and the leave pass is dropped.

🏏 Game day

Weather, directions and who's on the way.

1. Once the game's within about two weeks, its page shows the forecast for the ground, with a warning if rain or wind look likely.
2. Tap Directions to open the ground in your maps app.
3. Check-in opens 30 minutes before the start, and everyone who's in gets a reminder. Tap On my way, Running late (5 to 30 minutes) or I'm here.
4. Everyone can see who's here, who's on the way and who's late, so nobody's left waiting and wondering.

📋 Team sheet

Pick the side, the order and (for cricket) the field.

1. Whoever planned the game, or the captain, taps Pick the team on the game page.
2. Pick the players, put them in order (the batting order, for cricket) and give out roles: captain, vice-captain, keeper, 12th.
3. For cricket, drag each fielder to their spot on the field.
4. Save it as a draft while you think. Publish it and it's announced in the chat, and every player sees their own spot.
5. Change it after publishing and only the players whose spot changed get a ping.

🍻 After the game

Who turned up, the debrief, and food or drinks after.

1. Once it's started, whoever planned it (or the captain) marks who turned up. That's what counts in everyone's stats.
2. Then the debrief opens: add the result and vote for player of the match and duck of the day. Voting closes 48 hours after the game, or sooner if the captain closes it, and the winners are announced in the chat.
3. Fancy something after? Tap Who's up for after? on the game page. Everyone who's in gets a ping, and they answer Keen or Can't.
4. Suggest a place: pick Pub, Food, Café or Dessert to see what's near the ground, or type your own. Everyone gets one vote.
5. Whoever planned it, or the captain, locks one in, and everyone who's keen gets a ping with directions. It stays open until 6 hours after the game.

🤝 Find a partner

Someone at your level, nearby, for a game.

1. Switch on Open to play. Other players who are open to play near you show up, and you show up for them.
2. You see their first name, sport, level, suburb and roughly how far away they are. Never an address.
3. Tap Want to play? and they get a request. If they say yes, you both get a private chat to sort out a game.
4. Not for you? Block them from the … menu: you won't see each other, and their messages are hidden from you. You can also report them from there.

🏏 Shot guides

See where the ball goes, and how to fix it.

1. Open Me > Shot guides and pick cricket or tennis.
2. Pick a shot (cover drive, pull, sweep, forward defence; forehand, backhand, serve, drop shot) and your timing.
3. Tap Play the shot to watch the ball from above: a four or a winner when it's right, an edge, the net or out when it isn't.
4. Each result comes with a tip on what went wrong and how to fix it.

🏆 Your stats and badges

Games played, turning up, streaks and badges.

1. The Me tab shows your games played, how often you turn up when you say you're in, your week streak, awards and on-time check-ins.
2. Stats only count games where whoever planned it marked who turned up.
3. Earn badges like First game, Regular, On a roll, Rock solid and Organiser. Each badge you haven't earned yet shows what it takes and how close you are.

🛡️ Privacy and safety

What others see, and how to block or report someone.

1. Play Onside is for adults only (18+).
2. Other players see your name, sports, level and suburb. Never your address or exact location.
3. A ground's pin is only seen by people in that circle.
4. In a chat, hold a message to report it or block the person who sent it. A message you report disappears for you straight away.
5. In Find a partner, block or report someone from the … menu on their card.
6. Changed your mind? Me > Blocked players lists everyone you've blocked, with an Unblock button. They aren't told either way.
7. Every report comes straight to the Play Onside team, and we look at it within 24 hours. We remove content and accounts that break the rules.
8. Want to leave for good? Me > Delete my account removes your personal details straight away. Games you've already played stay for your circles, as "Deleted player".
9. Something wrong? Email us and we'll sort it out.