Signing/Delisting process

Quite often you'll find yourself with players who aren't performing while some unowned "Free Agents" are having big games. To delist a player without replacement, simply click the "Delist Players" link at the top of your Team page. If you want to sign and delist a player in the same transaction, it is easier to just go to the Player Market and click the Sign Player icon next to the player you want to pick up. You will be prompted to select a player you want to Delist and then to confirm the move. Players cannot be Delisted if they are in any pending trade offer or Restricted Free Agent request.

Once a player is Delisted they become a Restricted Free Agent for a default period of two days. During this time each coach in the league can put in a request to sign the player if they desire. At the end of the waiting period the coach who applied with the highest Restricted Free Agent Priority is awarded with the player. If no coaches have made a request after two days then the player becomes an free agent where they are free to be signed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Once you have signed a new player they are added to the end of your bench and it is up to you the coach to move them into a starting position.

Restricted Free Agents

When a player is delisted they become a restricted free agent for a period of two days. During this time each coach in the league can put in a request to sign the player if they desire. At the end of the waiting period the team who applied with the highest Restricted Free Agent priority is awarded with the player. If no teams make a request for the player before the waiting period is up the player becomes an free agent where they are free to be signed by anyone on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Note that custom leagues can change the default two day restricted free agent period, or disable restricted free agents all together.

Restricted free agent claims are processed at Midnight AEST each day. This means you have until 11:59 pm AEST to put in a claim for a player who's waiting period is due to expire.

This means that in order for a player successfully requested to be eligible to play for your team in a given round, their waiting period must expire before the day of the first game of the round.

You can find the date and round for which your claim will be processed by clicking the 'View' link next to the request on your team page.

Restricted free agent priority

Restricted free agent priority is the priority that each team has when requesting a restricted free agent. In the example of a 10 team league, each team will have a priority ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 being the "highest" or best priority, and 10 being the lowest or worst priority. If two teams request the same restricted free agent the one with the higher priority will successfully sign the player at the end of the restricted free agent period.

You can check each team's restricted free agent priority at any time from the Restricted Fa column of your league's ladder.

Initially this order is set to be the reverse order of the last round of your draft. Over time this order will change, since teams that are successful in signing restricted free agents will move to the bottom of the order.

Note that league managers in custom leagues have the ability to manually set this order. Custom leagues can also choose to have restricted free agent priorities reset to reverse ladder order after each round. This helps teams down the bottom of the ladder by giving them first choice at restricted free agents.

Weekly deadlines

To be able to play newly signed players in an upcoming round they must be signed before the first game of the round commences. So basically the players that are on your list when the first game of each AFL round kicks off are the ones eligible to play for you that week.

Any players signed after the start of the round will still be added to your team, although you won't be able to play them until the next round.

Signing Limits

Select the maximum number of free agent signings that each team is allowed over the course of the season.

Choose 'No Season Limit' to impose no restrictions on the number of signings each team can make.

Choose 'No Acquisitions Allowed' if you don't want coaches to be able to sign players to their team after the draft.

"Weekend" Signing Lockout

Choose whether teams are allowed to sign and delist players when a round of AFL matches is in progress.

No Restrictions (default): Signing and delisting of players continue as normal.

Unowned players become Restricted Free Agents: All unowned players become restricted free agents until midnight the day following the last AFL game of the round. This is a useful way to provide fairer access to players whose value might change during the round (e.g. rising stars, injury replacements) by way of restricted free agent priority, as opposed to a first-come first-served basis.