SPIDER NATION – KEEPER LEAGUES (NEW LEAGUE SETUP)

We have been running fantasy NRL competitions through Nearly Sport since 2009. We began as the Canberra Shield, changed to the Spider Cup in our second year and are now Spider Nation with several divisions and promotions and relegations between the grades each year.

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Since 2018 we transitioned to a keeper league setup where you retain your players from the previous year, all player prices increase each year and you can see how many bids are on a player but not who is bidding and how much.

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Here are a couple of things to get you started followed by the rules and structure of Spider Nation.

• Go to www.nearlysport.com and create an account.

• Have a read of http://www.nearlysport.com/HelpPage.htm to familiarise yourself with the general rules and scoring structure

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See below for the initial setup and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

SETUP

Coaches: 14

Salary Cap: $10 million

Squad: 25 players

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INITIAL RECRUITMENT – ONLINE DRAFT – (1st year only)

Draft order: A random order will be generated.

Draft: First 15 players

Draft price: 2 x minimum player value

Interval: Basically unlimited however it would be good if everyone could check whether it is their turn to select a player at least once a day. You will receive an email when it is your turn to draft.

Top 210 players’ value: $119,380,000

Average Draft value per team: $8.5 million

 

RECRUITMENT - BIDDING

Remaining players to be bid on

Bidding: Does not show the number of bids on a player

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FROM THE 2ND YEAR ONWARDS

OFF SEASON

At the end of each season there will be coaches who have gained promotion, coaches who have been sacked and coaches who will quit the game all together and abandon their team. This is how we will manage the clubs with new coaches.

 

PROMOTIONS AND SACKINGS

To be completed prior to November 1.

Coaches finishing in the bottom two during the regular season, pending the outcome of the Hail Mary rule, (see Hail Mary Rule below) will be sacked and will take up a coaching position at an available team one division lower. Coaches who make the grand final will be promoted to an available team one division higher.

A promoted coach may choose to take over a relegated club or an abandoned club.

A relegated coach may only choose to take over a promoted club.

 

New Club Selection Order

1st pick – Grand Final Winner

2nd pick – Grand Final Loser

3rd pick – 2nd last in regular season

4th pick – Wooden spoon in regular season

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If more teams become available, the order will be at the discretion of the Commissioner.

All promoted and relegated clubs are subject to the Robin Hood Rule. (See below)

 

HAIL MARY RULE

The teams that finish the regular season in last or second last can avoid relegation by winning the Best of the Rest Grand Final. If one of these teams win, third last in the regular season is relegated. Best of the Rest just go interesting.

 

ROBIN HOOD RULE

Rob from the rich to give to the poor. If you coached so poorly you were sacked from your club, you deserve to be punished and need to earn your way back up to a higher division. In order to level the playing field, promoted teams steal players from the grand finalists to add to their own team and relegated teams have to take their medicine and watch while their inherited grand final team gets pillaged.

 

Example for 2nd Division

Grand Final Winner – Loses 1 player to 2nd last team, loses 1 player to last team

Grand Final Loser – Loses 1 player to last team

2nd Last Team – Steals 1 player from GF Winner

Last Team – Steals 1 player from GF Winner and GF Loser

Abandoned Teams – No change

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This method rewards the teams who have earned promotion and punishes teams who have been relegated.

In 1st division the promoted teams may make their selections from the free agent market as the teams that made the grand final should not be punished.

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Note – The Robin Hood rule take effect immediately after all clubs are assigned a new coach and prior to any cutting or trading happening.

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END OF SEASON PRICE ADJUSTMENT

A new salary system for increases was introduced in 2022. The new system has led to an increased focus on roster management, more player turnover and will create premiership windows for clubs that may only last a year before difficult roster decisions need to be made. The new system does not punish coaches by limiting the amount of players they can retain each year and it also allows promoted coaches a selection of quality players on the free agent list to begin their rebuild.

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The new salary increases revolve around how many points a player has scored in the previous year. The highest scorers face the steepest salary increases leading to teams that have a lot of big scorers becoming top heavy and having to make some difficult cuts.

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The Details

- At the end of the season, all players are ranked in order of the highest point scorers to the lowest point scorers

- Ranks 1-10 face a 100% salary increase the following year

- Ranks 11-20 face a 90% salary increase the following year

- Ranks 21-30 face a 80% salary increase the following year and so on and so forth

- Ranks 91 onwards and for every player that scores at least 1 point during the year will face a 10% salary increase the following year

- Players that do not score any points during the year will not face a salary increase the following year

- Salaries are capped at the level of the highest NRL player. Kalyn Ponga currently receives a salary of $1.4 million so we will limit our salaries to that level until an NRL player signs on a higher contract.

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EXAMPLE

You sign Cameron Smith for $200k and he scores the most points that year. Next year he would be valued at $400k. Next year he does it again and he would then be valued at $800k and in one more year he would be valued at $1.6 million but the salary cap limit would mean that you only have to pay $1.3 million. This would mean you would have him for 4 years before he hit his maximum salary which would be a reasonable salary for the highest point scorer. If during the 2nd year he missed the season through injury and didn't score a point, he would remain at $400k so you wouldn't be punished for holding him. (Please note: Just like in previous years, if Nearly Sport increases the base salary above what the spreadsheet says, you would pay the Nearly Sport minimum)

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Further to this, Briton Nikora scored 58 points but was ranked in 91st position so would only face a 10% salary increase the following year so players can still score decent points without their salary getting out of control unnecessarily.

The new salary cap system will lead clubs to continually re-balance their squads as players become overvalued but also allow a coach to retain all their players depending on how they choose to manage their cap each year.

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Using a method like this would mean that the highest scoring players are always pushed to be paid the most while the development players for the future only go up by 0-10% each year so no coaches are punished for their foresight but they will have to make a call if their squad gets too top heavy. It will mean that a premiership 'window' of 2 or 3 years may open up for a coach if they manage to sign players like Cam Smith, Tohu Harris, Isaah Yeo, Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan on low salaries initially. After players of this calibre have 2 or 3 years of top 20 performances, they will all be on salaries in excess of $1 million. This will mean that difficult retention decisions will have to be made and quality players will be pushed back onto the market.

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THE COMMISSIONER WILL ORGANISE ALL THE NEW PRICES AND PROVIDE AN UPDATED TEAM LIST TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING YEAR SO NO EXTRA WORK IN CALCULATING THE PRICES YEAR TO YEAR IS REQUIRED FROM ANY COACH. THAT IS UNLESS THEY WANT TO PLAN AHEAD WHICH YOU ALL SHOULD!!

 

RETENTION

Player salary increase: As above

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Retained players: You may retain as many players in your squad from one year to the next however you must ensure that you are salary cap compliant the following year. (See Salary Cap Compliancy below)

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Players who are released from a club at the end of the year join the free agent list and will be available to draft the following year. (See Offline Draft below)

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COMPLIANCE

All updated player values in accordance with the End of Season Price Adjustment will come into effect on November 1.

Compliance is ignored for all off season trading activities (see Trading below) meaning that you can trade for a second goalkicker or be over the salary cap and it doesn’t matter. Compliance only matters on the cutoff date.

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Cutoff for salary cap and goalkicker compliance is set as February 1 however is subject to change based on Nearly Sport performing their updates also. If your team is not salary cap and goalkicker compliant by the compliance date, the  Independent Commission will assume control of the club and make them compliant by cutting from their most expensive player down until they are compliant. In the event that a club still has multiple goalkickers, their most expensive goalkicker will be cut first. This makes it a black and white rule with no misinterpretation. You have been warned.

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In extreme circumstances the coach of a non compliant club may be sacked and a new coach appointed.

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REMAINDER OF OFF SEASON

November 1 – January 31

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Now that the new coaches have taken up their appointments and the Robin Hood rule has been applied, on November 1 the Commissioner will update and send out the full roster of each club with the updated salaries.

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Each coach is to check their squad and ensure that their new roster for the upcoming season is salary cap compliant by cutting any unwanted players. (See Salary Cap Compliancy above)

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TO BE COMPLIANT – prior to February 1, each coach must send a list of cut players via direct message to the Commissioner who will finalise all squads.

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TRADING

November 1 – January 31 (Three Month Offline Trading Window)

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Offline trading will commence on November 1 after the updated squads are released with updated player values and the Robin Hood rule has been enacted. In order for a trade to be validated you must first create a group chat in Messenger with the Commissioner and the other coach involved in the trade. Once both coaches have been witnessed approving the trade, the Commissioner will action the trade and update the squads accordingly.

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Compliance is ignored for all off season trading activities meaning that you can trade for a second goalkicker or be over the salary cap and it doesn’t matter. Compliance only matters on the cutoff date.

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Note: Draft picks for the upcoming season may also be traded

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PRE-SEASON

February 1 onwards

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OFFLINE DRAFT – (Year 2 onwards)

Now that all the squads are salary cap compliant, a two round offline draft will be organised around the opening time of Nearly Sport. Players must be available in Nearly Sport to draft.

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Some simple rules about the draft:

• You may NOT draft any players that you cut from your team for compliance during the first 14 selections of the draft.

• If you cut a player during the first 14 selections of the draft, you may NOT draft them during selections 15 - 28 of the draft.

• You may draft any players that you cut from your team for compliance during selections 15 - 28 of the draft.

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Draft order: Wooden Spoon team drafts first, Grand Final Winner drafts last pending any draft pick trades that happen during the off season.

 

Draft: 2 players

 

Draft price: 2 x minimum player value

 

Interval: 1 minute

 

INITIAL RECRUITMENT ROUND – BIDDING

Nearly Sport is open.

 

With the draft now complete and Nearly Sport open for business, the Divisions will fill up like normal and an initial recruitment round will begin. During this round coaches are to place bids on their retained and newly drafted players only.

 

THIS WILL BE CHECKED BY A SALARY CAP AUDITOR

 

If a coach places an incorrect bid (lower or higher) on one of their retained players, they will be forced to release that player back onto the free agent market. After releasing the player, all coaches are permitted to bid on that player including the coach who released him.

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If a coach wins a bid on a player who is not one of their retained players, they must release that player immediately but are not permitted to bid on them again. They may also face further sanctions at the discretion of the Independent Commission up to and including the release of an existing player so bid carefully.

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Following the initial recruitment round, the remaining players are bid on as per normal.

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Bidding: The number of bids on a players is not shown.

 

Now that you’ve been dumped with all this info, good luck.