No really, I don't even know if this is the correct section to put this in, so if not, feel free to move to proper section if required - sorry for the inconvenience.
I think it belongs here just because I feel 'new' and want to know more about this/need help with this.

Anyways, this is a bit of questions, rant, comments, etc, thus, where do I even begin? And there's a bit to read.

I guess, straight to the point, how do I get my Sony a65 to have better auto-focus?
Now, that's a very vague question, and here's why (thus the comment/rant part):

I just finished photographing a sports night at church today - they played basketball and volleyball (I'll be going through the photos as time permits to crop, enhance, etc, which will take a while), and I was using continuous auto focus with wide AF area, but I found some oddities.

1) The camera seems to look at everything as a flat scene, and likes to focus in the centre (I've also tried zone which helped marginally). Now, I've read somewhere where someone noticed that different AF points in the AF area focused quicker than other points, nevertheless, my camera really likes the centre (such as when I'm taking a group photo, it focuses on the centre AF point, or around there - there isn't even multiple points focused, just one AF point). But, when there's movement, the camera 'may' pick it up, and focus on one of the points other than the centre. Even so, most of the time, it still focused on the centre, rather than the 'people running around'.

So I guess, what can I do to make the focusing more intelligent... I guess, if that's the right word to use... To track people more (other than using the tracking function because then it's only focused on one thing, and without having to pick the points manually) so that I can get a broader focus?
Could it be my aperture is too wide, so it doesn't have the breathing room to focus on multiple points? I was using f5 throughout the shots, hoping there would be enough to focus with, but not too small so that I can still use 1/160 and ISO 3200.

2) I'm still trying to figure out the face detection feature. For example, on point and shoots, it detects the face, it'll focus on the faces, snap, walah - done. I've noticed on both my Sony a65 and a55, it doesn't do that. It finds the face, a box encompasses them, but it'll still focus on one of the 15 AF points. So although the head and box is just above one of the points, it focuses on the point instead, where the neck/collar/shoulder is (such as the problem previously mentioned when I'm taking a group picture).
How do I get it so that when it detects a face, it focuses to that face? I've looked in my settings and don't see anything which could be preventing it from doing so, other than not using smile shutter to automatically take shots when it detects a smile (I do have face detection on nonetheless).

One thing I noticed though is, if the face/box happens to be on one of the AF points, sometimes it'll focus on that head. Sometimes it'll just focus on the AF point (if the box is only partially in the AF point) - so I don't know if getting the box to focus requires it being on an AF point or not... which I find defeats the purpose of face detection...
Do I need to be in a different mode like auto or portrait? I was using manual for the night, before going to aperture priority to let the camera try and pick it's own shutter speeds to see how it'd go.

So those are pretty much my concerns.

Other than that, one reason for tonight was to test the batteries, auto focus, and speed I guess?

We played indoors, just under room temperature or so around there, GPS off, quick review off, used LCD rather than viewfinder, no flash, ISO 3200, f5, 1/160 (average), JPEG (fine), generic battery, image stabilisation on, and continuous auto focus.
I managed to take 1700 photos of consistent burst shots, only chimped a handful of times, and still have 51% battery left according to the camera (started around 96% or something).

The camera specs show it only takes around 500 photos per charge, so with this difference, I'm wanting to know a little more about the process of how they test their batteries?
I want to know so I can gauge whether having 2 batteries will be enough for when I shoot someone's engagement photos, wedding, etc, or not.
Hopefully then I can get a better idea of how much power different functions use also.

I generally don't use GPS, I usually do use the viewfinder more often then I did tonight, and I generally don't burst. During casual strolling for taking photos, I chimp a lot to save having to do that after I get home (I know, you should always be ready to shoot - it's a very casual stroll).

Anyways, any comments/help appreciated. Ta.