The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 3 plus 5 letter word KNEW THE SCORE
K
N
E
W
T
H
E
S
C
O
R
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Was informed/could tell you the state of thegame" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case was informed/could tell you the state of thegame = knew the score.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.