Alright guys, it's time to begin the process of contracts. Now, bearing in mind that this is the first season in which we've experimented with contracts, there's going to be a few hiccups. Just bear with us and we'll work through them.

Contracts, Phase One
The first thing you need to do is decide whether you want to extend any of your current contracts. See the Contracts documentation for specifics as to how to do this. The key area we're looking at here is your one year deals - as anyone you don't renew will be going on the open market.

So, if you intend on upgrading anybody's contract, now is the time to do it. Note, we will allow for you to upgrade contracts after the contract period as well - but since your one year deals will all be 'off contract', now is the time to do them.

Remember, however, that your extensions are limited by your finish:
- Premier and Minor Premier: 4
- Premier or Minor Premier: 3
- Finalist: 2
- Missed Finals: 1
- Wooden Spoon: 0

So, obviously the number is not certain, but you can at least decide which of your one year deals you will definitely not be re-signing and begin deciding which players will be given extensions.

Contracts, Phase Two

If you have an RSC, this step applies to you, if not - ignore it. You have ten safety netted players, they are not going anywhere unless you want them to. Now is the time to say whether you intend to drop any of them. Secondly, outside of your safety net, every member of your RSC squad will be a free agent (with the proviso being that they must be signed to a club, not its RSC). However, if you want to keep someone you didn't put inside your safety net, you may use your spare contracts years to make them a member of your firsts side.

If there's any questions, let me know. In a few moments I'll post an example (those being my own contracts).

Example
This is an example based on my current Gold Coast squad, and assuming I manage to maintain my spot at #1 on the ladder and thus have three extensions to hand out at a minimum

STEP ONE
Firstly, all of my contracts 'drop' a year. All of my four years become three, three become two, two become one, and ones become 'none'. The only exception here is me choosing to extend a player's contract to prevent this from happening. So, if I did not make any extensions, my entire list of 'one year' would become free agents. However, I want to keep both Milton Thaidy and David Seage to see how they develop. I give Seage a one year contract extension (increasing his salary to $172,500 from $150,000) and Thaidy a three year extension (increasing his value to $280,000). I also decide to extend Julian Santarakista's contract by another year, as neither of my two young fullbacks are ready for firsts just yet. Santarakista's new value is $345,000).

Now, remember I cannot upgrade these contracts again. At the end of next year Seage and Santarakista will enter the open market and the only way I can keep them is if nobody bids on them or if I matcht he winning bid.

STEP TWO
Now, a large portion of my RSC is obviously coming off contract, and I don't want that. I need to make room for them in my top squad or risk losing them to a rival clubs. I promote:
Luke Quigley (One Year)
Bradley Tighe (Three Year)
Kevin Brown (Two Years)
Nigel Plum (One Year)
Clifford Manua (One Year)
Epalahame Lauaki (One Year)

NOTE: These DO NOT count as extensions, and I can extend these players' contracts at a later date if I wish to.

STEP THREE
Work out who you've lost and how many years of contracts you have remaining. In my case, I'd lose:
Gordon D'Arcy
Jason Stevens (Retired)
Aaron Cannings
Ade Gardner
Karl Pratt (Retired)
Phillip Leullai

I would also lose any of my RSC side that were not in my safety net and that are bid upon by rival Premier League or Division Two clubs. NOTE: Clubs CANNOT 'steal' other club's RSC players to place within their own RSC team.

My 'new look' side would be something like this (before contract bidding):

Three Years (12)
Andrew Johns
Danny Buderus
Bradley Tighe (3)
Milton Thaidy (+3)

Two Years (10)
Luke Rooney
Kevin Brown (2)
Jarrod Mullen
Matt King
Steve Simpson

One Year (12)
Tommy O’Reilly
Danny Nutley
Ben Kennedy
Brian Carney
Kevin Sinfield
Luke Quigley (1)
Clint Newton
Clifford Manua (1)
Nigel Plum (1)
Epalahame Lauaki (1)
David Seage (+1)
Julian Santarakista (+1)

Released
Gordon D’Arcy
Jason Stevens (Retired)
Aaron Cannings
Ade Gardner
Karl Pratt (retired)
James Stosic
Phillip Leullai

TOTAL SPENT: 34

As you can see, even if I managed to win the minor premiership in 2005/2006, I would be in line to lose someone in the ballpark of Ben Kennedy, Brian Carney, Kevin Sinfield, Danny Nutley, or Tommy O'Reilly. I could only upgrade three of them if I did win the minor premiership, and could risk losing all but one of them if I missed the eight.

I also have some sixteen years worth of contracts to hand out during bidding and need to find four more players to complete my squad.

I thought we decided that we could rebid on our players... but mind you their salary could be increasing dramatically. I thought Roger brought up the idea and we approved...

Also, just on upgrading contracts. The Falcons have really no one in their 1 year (dropping to open market) status. Say I make/miss the 8, am I able to upgrade my 2/3/4 year deals instead?

Yeah, why wouldn't you be able to? You can upgrade a ten year deal if you want to.

It's alright... just trying to work it out, since I've got a bunch of no-hopers on 1 year deals which I'm not interested in extending this season.

Do all teams have to equal 50 years of contracts per season?

With the salary increase system, I don't think we should stick to the 50 yr plan. The 50 yr plan was a good platform for organising contract years, but with salary increases when players are off-contract,I fel that we don't need to rigidly stick to this system.

The salary cap should be our only strict guideline for player rosters. Salary cap issues combined with the 50yr plan per season is just too much to regulate. Salary increases will keep team coaches on their toes and a spread of talent will happen, due to increases of player payments. The longer a coach wants a player, the more they should pay.

Getting rid of the 50 yr plan will also help coaches to field a full 25 man squad. The only worry a coach should have is fitting 25 players into a team roster, not dividing up years between 25 players. Increases in player salaries are enouugh to deal with, regarding off-contract players.

Alright, so I'm going to tie down Andrew Johns to a billion year deal...

yeah roger, that made no sence at all, a player could make all his new buys 10 year deals and not have to worry about salary increases on those players, or contract renewals on big players could be long term locking them up and not having to worry about other players not fitting within the 50 year cap....... the 50 years has to stay..........

Fair point. I didn't think about it along those lines.

I thought you'd have to pay a higher percentage of their contract amount if they stay longterm.

we get last bid on whether we renew a player by matching the highest bidder i believe?An hour at the end where the players club gets the sole opportunity to keep a player where noone can interfere..

couple of questions
1)as those two players are in your safety net do they have to be offered a contract to stay at your club.

2) what salary do rsc players coming into your first grade? at their current salary or do they get the % increase as well depending on years?

3) can we promote the rsc players in our safety net later after contract bidding depending on if we get players we bidded for or not?
4) do players that get an 8 in attack or defence have to be promoted to first grade team from rsc? even if they are in the safety net!

1). No, I promoted them because they will likely receive a stats boost that will make them ineligible to remain in RSC (which answers question four).

2). They are promoted on their current salary

3). Yes

4). See answer to question one

final question
e.g.
stacey jones says comes off contract this season gets a 2 year extension by his club after his extension he gets traded off to say my team. after the two years can i extend his contract since i didn't extend it or does he go into contract bidding?

cause if he goes into contract bidding then their will need to be a file in yahoo group saying who has had their contract extended (especially for the newbies)

Look, the 'one re-signing per player' thing is crap. I'm cutting it. It's not only unrealistic, but it's a whole lot of extra paper work for Micky J and I to handle.

There will be no limit on the amount of times a player can have his contract upgraded.

Will the extra extensions still bring an increase to his salary?? as in real life??

Yes

The following teams can no longer make the top eight, and so can list their retentions/upgrades now.

If you are still in danger of finishing last, list an upgrade (if you want one) and it will be made void should you collect the wooden spoon. Note that finishing second last in Premier League and losing a Wildcard game does not count as a wooden spoon.

Liverpool Rockets
Christchurch Avalanches
Hornsby Mavericks
Lake Heights Lightning
Perth Taipans
Newcastle Fear
Wagga Stallions
Waikato Breakers
Geelong Bengals

Post in the Contract Extensions (mispelled as Extentions atm) forum.

Do we have to name extensions/upgrades without seeing the new stats??

Yeah, you do. Stats should reflect a player's real life ability, something a coach can research for themselves

Any sides whose position is assured (whether it be a guaranteed finals berth or a guarantee of not appearing) needs to submit contracts by round twenty six (to be played next Wednesday).