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Back your footy judgement. Play the long game and build a dynasty.
Start with the Draft, manage each round, play hard to the end and shape the squad you will carry into the next season.
Game in 60 Seconds
Build a Squad under the salary cap in the draft, then submit a Named Team each round. Long Game Fantasy Rugby League finds the highest-scoring legal 13 from that selected team, so depth and a strong bench matter.
Free Agency and Trades help you improve your Squad during the season. Pick up emerging or overlooked players and find opportunities to improve your side by trading with other clubs. Contracts, Extensions and Retainable Players make each decision part of the Long Game. Before your first Draft, use Draft Planner to prioritise your picks. It's available as soon as the Initial Draft Pool is published.
The Competition Rules set each statistic score and the competition points for a win, draw or loss.
Initial Draft
An established competition moving into Long Game Fantasy Rugby League can instead use the Commissioner migration workspace to load existing opening squads and Contracts instead of using a Draft.
Draft Planner
The Planner will be active once the official Pool is published.
Evaluate the Players and their eligible positions, Player Value, recent statistics and availability.
Use your current squad, salary-cap position and remaining Draft choices to work out next steps.
Put the Players in your preferred order and save the list before the Draft. Adjust the order whenever needed and don't forget to save.
Your draft targets and the ranking order are private to a Club's current Manager. The Commissioner can only see whether a Club is prepared, but cannot see Player names, Player IDs or ranking details.
If you’ve selected a type of automatic pick, Long Game Fantasy Rugby League will select the highest ranked available player for you. It won’t select a player if they’re unavailable, unaffordable or otherwise invalid. If you don’t want to use the automatic pick, the Draft Planner is there as a tool to help you plan. Choose manual picks, automatic selection when your Club becomes current, or automatic selection when a timed pick expires. If your time expires without an eligible saved Player, the Draft pauses for attention instead of choosing a fallback Player.
Each Draft will have a new instance of the Planner available.
Sign in to open Draft PlannerSign in to open Player MarketSign in to open Draft
Contracts
Contracts can lock in a player and protect value across seasons, but every longer commitment reduces your room to change course. The Competition Rules set each Club's combined season limit for two-year Contract and Extension applications.The limit applies to new Contracts, not to the number of contracted Players a Club can hold. If you pick up a contracted player in a trade that Contract persists and does not impact your Contract allocation for the year. Contracts can be applied after the Draft or be used during any Free Agency during the year. You decide how many Contracts you want to use for your drafted players AFTER the Draft.
Releasing a Player with a two-year Contract through Free Agency will incur a salary-cap penalty (Cap Charge) of half of their Contract Value. Understand that consequence before releasing the Player.
You can give one player an Extension each year, so you can potentially have THAT superstar on your books for an extra year!
Weekly Routine
Start with the decisions and deadlines that still need you.
Check starting roles, interchange places, injuries and late changes. Players can pick up new positions from the Tuesday Team List. Positions added from the Final Named Sides apply from the following round.
Build the Named Team required by your Competition Rules and nominate the required kickers. Team naming locks out at the start of the round - no changes after that.
Use Free Agency or a Trade when the move improves your squad, then check the Named Team again.
Scores can move during the round while NRL matches are played. A Published result is the one that counts.
Long Game Fantasy Rugby League works out the highest-scoring legal combination from the Named Team.
Team Selection
Choose the starters and Bench from your current Squad. The Competition Rules set how many starters and Bench Players make up the named Team. Nominate a primary and secondary goal-kicker - the secondary goal-kicker only scores points for goal kicks if the primary kicker doesn’t attempt any goal-kicks; captain is optional and ceremonial, and does not change scoring.
Save while the named Team is still taking shape. Submit when it is ready to count for the deadline. If Free Agency or a Trade changes the Squad, return to My Team and check the submitted Team.
Scoring Team rule
A Player can fill only an eligible position. An eligible starter may move to another position and a Bench Player may come into the side. The highest-scoring legal Team from the named Players counts.
Free Agency
During a Free Agency market, rank the Players you want, choose what you will pay and name the Player to release if a bid wins. You can try to release the same player multiple times, by bidding on alternatives. You can also bid on the same player multiple times, with different players to release too, however be careful you’re not outbidding yourself. If you have a contracted Player who is injured and you don’t want to let him go, you can apply to place him on the Injury Replacement list and bring in a replacement through Free Agency. While he is on Injury Replacement, 50% of his Contract Value still counts against your salary cap.The market shows how many bids you can submit.
Bids stay private while the market is open. At the configured Free Agency cut-off all bids are reviewed and roster changes processed. A winning bid still has to satisfy roster, position, Contract, Injury Replacement and salary-cap rules. If one provisional win cannot stand, the remaining bids are considered again.
Releasing a player that has a Contract beyond this year will incur a penalty of half their Contract Value. Be sure who you're giving a Contract to.
A one-year offer is compared at its annual amount. A two-year offer is compared at twice its annual amount, as it's a more enticing offer for the player. Only the one-year Contract Value counts as the ordinary yearly Cap Charge.
Trades & Trade Reviews
Managers can trade players with each other a two key periods - 1. Prior to, and during, the Annual Draft; 2. During the season in the configured Trade window. Managers can propose Players, retained salary and Draft choices or pick swaps where applicable. Review who arrives, who leaves, which Contracts move and what happens to each Team's salary cap.
Accepted means every participating Manager has agreed to the same trade. If the proposal changes, everyone must consider it again. The Trade is not finished until any required review and all roster, Contract and salary-cap changes are complete.
The Competition Rules say whether every accepted Trade goes to the Ruling Committee or only a Trade referred by the Commissioner.
The Ruling Committee is a random selection of your peers and is there to stop Trades that could unfairly distort the competition. Eligible Managers can be selected for a Ruling Committee unless they are unavailable, excluded, involved in the Trade or known to have a conflict. The Committee may Approve, Deny or request more information.
Offended Opponent for Finals
The highest-seeded Team in each four-Team Finals bracket chooses one of the other three Teams as its Offended Opponent for Game 1. The remaining two Teams form Game 2, with the higher seed at home.
The Manager makes the choice through My Actions before the deadline. The choice becomes binding. If no choice is made, the default seed set in the Competition Rules is selected.
Draft Lottery Balls — Play to the End
Keep competing through the last match in your bracket.
Finishing higher in your Finals bracket can earn you more Draft Lottery Balls. The Draft Lottery is held each year to determine the all-important Draft Order, so there is something to play for right to the end. Deliberately losing won't get you a better first-round Draft pick.
Sign in to open the final-place allocation and first-draw chances.
Between Seasons
Extensions
There are no Extension decisions before a competition's first season. Extensions begin only after a completed season provides an existing squad and Contract history to carry forward.
The next season's Competition Rules decide whether each Club has an Extension application. Players with a continuing two-year Contract, or a already on Extension, are are not able to be offered an Extension.
Extended players are carried forward at their Contract Value from the previous season, not their Player Value.
Retainable Players
A Player is a Retainable if they are 21 or younger on 31 December immediately before the target season. There is no limit on the number of Retainables a Club can have.
Choose Retain or Release for each eligible Player. Retaining one uses a next-season squad place and their next-season Player Value counts against the salary cap. Any existing Contract is dealt with separately.
Draft Lottery
Each season a Lottery is held to determine the Draft Order for that season. As each Club is drawn, that Club and all its Lottery Balls leave the remaining draw.
Rather than specifying which draft pick is best, Long Game Fantasy Rugby League gives each manager the choice of which pick they want in the first round. Managers then choose their first round pick number in the order drawn by the Lottery. Sometimes Pick 11 is preferred to Pick 8.
Sign in to open the Draft Lottery to see the approved allocation, entrants, reveal and Draft Position choices.
Annual Draft
The Annual Draft follows the Draft Lottery, opening-squad decisions and publication of its own Draft Pool. Each Team receives only the Draft choices needed to reach the required squad size. Trades and pick-swaps can change the order and number of Draft picks where the Competition Rules allow them.
Use the Draft Planner to plan out your Draft and to get Long Game Fantasy Rugby League to take your pick for you, if needed.
The Competition Rules set the order for later rounds.Contracts are assigned after the Draft.
This guide explains the Manager journey thoughout a season. Commissioners can use the Sign in to open Commissioner Guide for setup and competition decisions.