A Free Agent is a player who is listed on the Masterlist and is not signed to any Sim club. (The letter "A" is shown in the "Sim Club" column). All AFL players start as Free Agents and remain so until they are signed, through either a draft as previously discussed, or a BuyFA (Buy Free Agent) order.

Rule 8A - A successful BuyFA order costs $50,000 payable to the SFL, irrespective of the player's OOM Value. The BuyFA order can only be used from rounds 1 to 15 inclusive. Each club is allowed one BuyFA order per round, non-cumulative.

An Uncontracted Player is a player who has been signed by a Sim club, but has not been Contracted to the club. Once a player has been signed, through either a draft, a BuyFA or BuyUP (Buy Uncontracted Player) order, or as a Transfer In, he becomes an Uncontracted Player and remains so until such time as his club Contracts him.

Rule 8B - An Uncontracted Player may be purchased by another club for a minimum of his OOM Value + $1, which is paid to the club from which he is purchased. Uncontracted Players may only be purchased using the BuyUP order from rounds 1 to 15 inclusive. Each club is allowed one BuyUP order per round, non-cumulative.

A Contracted Player is a player who has been signed by a Sim club and is also under contract. A Contracted Player cannot be purchased using any Buy order.

Rule 8C - A player can be Contracted only if he is on the List of the club prior to the deadline of the week/round in which the Contract order is made. A Contract is in force from the week in which the Contract order is made.

The first part means you can't Contract a player you don't already own. For example, if you had made a deal to receive a player via transfer from another team, you could not Contract that player in the same week he was transferred to you. The same applies to players who are purchased using either Buy order.

The Contract order covers the player in the week/round the order is made, allowing you to secure your prize recruit from the week before. If another team makes a BuyUP order in the same week you make a Contract order on that player, the contract is valid and the BuyUP order fails.

Rule 8D - A player can be Contracted in the Bulk Contract round prior to the commencement of each season, or via the Contract order on the Teamsheet from rounds 1 to 15 inclusive. Each club is allowed one Contract order per round, non-cumulative. A Contract is financially binding until the end of the current season. All Contracts expire on 31/12 each year.

The last bit means that a Contract only covers the current season/year. All players on Sim Lists become Uncontracted Players on 1st January each year. You can Contract any or all of your players to guard against approaches from other clubs. But, of course, it costs money.

Rule 8E - When a player is Contracted, his OOM Value is added to his club's Contract Pool. A club pays 3.3% of its Contract Pool annually. Each Club pays 1/22nd of 3.3% of its Contract Pool each week of the home & away games and finals.

You can work out your weekly Contract cost by multiplying your Contract Pool by 0.0015. A club with a Contract Pool of $7,000,000 would pay $10,500 per week in Contract costs, while a Contract Pool of $10,200,000 would cost $15,300 per week.

Hold on, how can a club have a Contract Pool of $10,200,000 when the Salary Cap is only $10,000,000?

Rule 8F - Contracts cannot be revoked. Once a player has been Contracted, his OOM Value remains in the Contract Pool of the Contracting club for the remainder of the season.

So if you had a Squad Value of $9,900,000 and Contracted the lot, your Contract Pool would obviously be $9,900,000. If you then Delisted a $300,000 player your Contract Pool would not change because once the player's OOM Value is added to your Contract Pool, it stays there for the rest of the season. If you then bought another $300,000 player and Contracted him, your Contract Pool would rise to $10,200,000, but your Squad Value would be only $9,900,000. So even though you pay only 1/22nd of the annual cost each week, the amount you pay is based on the annual value of every Contract that you have entered into during the season, regardless of whether the player is still with your club.

Rule 8G - Contracts do not carry-over between clubs. A Contracted player who is Delisted becomes a Free Agent. A Contracted player who is Transferred to another club becomes an Uncontracted Player for that club.

To sum it all up, if you Contract a player, you pay the Contract out, no matter what. If you get rid of the player he is no longer Contracted. All Contracts only last until the end of the year. Bear in mind that Contracting a player does not affect your ability to trade him. Contracting stops opposition clubs poaching your players but in all other respects Contracted Players are no different to others.

There is one very important aspect of Contracting that must be discussed. You should always remember that during the season you can only Contract one player per round. Should you, for example, Buy a Free Agent and also receive a player Transferred In during the same round, you will only be able to Contract one of them the next week, leaving the other open to BuyUP orders from opposition clubs. This is a simple fact and if you want to acquire more than one player in the same week, you are either risking losing one to a BuyUP order or you have something else in mind. A tactic that has previously been used is to Transfer one of the newly-acquired players to a friendly club and Contract the other. Then the next week the other club Transfers the player back to you and the following week you Contract him. Messy, but it works.

Rule 8H - Veterans have their OOM Value halved. Veterans are players who are nominated as veterans by their AFL club. There is no set limit to the number of Veterans a Sim club may have on its list.

A Veteran has his OOM Value halved, meaning only half his real value is included in your Salary Cap, and you pay only half the wages you normally would. And you only pay half the normal fees if you Contract him. So the value of a Veteran is obvious - he's only half as expensive to maintain as he should be. The majority of veterans are still very good Sim players, and the benefits of having 2 or 3 Veterans who would normally be worth $400,000 each, should not be under-estimated. You would be saving $600,000 on the salary cap, as well as $3,000 per week in wages and $900 per week in contracts - a saving of $85,800 over a single season if you had three $400,000 veterans.

Okay, we've mentioned Transfers and Delists a few times now. We'd better look at exactly how they work. Once that is done we can discuss reasons why you should and shouldn't contract players.