The Parramatta Eels might have said options in contracts won't be their bread and butter moving forward, but they are about to find out why the hard way once again.
The blue and gold's recruitment policies have become something of a laughing stock in recent years.
It feels like every year they hamstring their only ability to make deals with their own players, or indeed those from rival clubs because they are being held to salary cap ransom by players on their current roster who can decide what they want to do on their own terms.
It has been bad before, but maybe not as bad as it is this time around.
From November 1 (27 days ago now), all of Dylan Brown, Shaun Lane, Ryan Matterson, Will Penisini and youngster Saxon Pryke have been able to negotiate with other clubs, safe in the knowledge they have the safety blanket of an option at Parramatta.
The options for Lane and Pryke are mutual, meaning the club also have to pick them up, but often, mutual options are based on performance-based criteria, which are more often than not achievable.
David Klemmer and Christian Welch - two experienced forwards at the Wests Tigers and Melbourne Storm, respectively - have similar contracts heading into 2026.
But all up, Parramatta have close to half the players in the competition with options in their favour - or partially in their favour - on their books for 2026.
While we aren't privy to all the salary cap details of the players with options, but Dylan Brown is believed to be on $900,000 per year, Ryan Matterson approximately $600,000 per year, Shaun Lane similar, and Will Penisini $400,000 per year.
The latter of the quartet will be in for a big upgrade if he is to remain at the Eels in 2026, one would suggest, with a new deal on the horizon.
All up, we are talking about more than $2 million of salary the Eels don't know where they stand with heading into 2026.
If all of those players take until the middle of next year to take up their options, as would be their right under current stipulations, but then don't actually do so, the Eels will be half a year behind other clubs at the negotiating table.
The issue really is that Parramatta can't go and sign replacement players. All of those players with options are starting calibre players taking up chunks of the salary cap. If they decide in July to take up their offers, in a hypothetical world, the Eels could simply not have signed anyone else to replace them.
And that's where the issue lies.
Because every player off-contract at the end of 2026 can negotiate right now. They have been since November 1 too.
The middle of the year is simply, in most cases, too late to start negotiating if you want to sign big guns.
That said, it might work out just fine for new coach Jason Ryles and his recruitment staff if all of those players make early decisions.
The Eels likely want to hit restart, and it's up in the air how many of those four players they actually want remaining on deck anyway, but that's not the point here.
The point is that it hits their ability to negotiate for six, and it's no surprise that the number of options in player's favour across the competition is extremely limited.
It's little wonder, then, that reports recently emerged suggesting the Eels are now working to remove the two years worth of player options in Mitchell Moses contract for 2027 and 2028.
The New South Wales representative, if they aren't removed, will be allowed to head to the open market yet again from November 1, 2025.
While that works in the background, the Eels must move quickly to get answers from their five players with options for 2026.
Dylan Brown is the first priority, too. He had a rough 2023 campaign but is still among the game's best five-eighths. Sitting on a deal believed to be worth $900,000 per season, and with options stringing out all the way to 2031, the blue and gold must move to renegotiate his contract.
Given the lack of strong five-eighths on the market - exacerbated by the re-signing of Braydon Trindall at the Cronulla Sharks - it's clear the Eels must move to lock Brown down on a new deal.
Talented young gun Will Penisini is next. One of the best centres in the competition, he will be unreplaceable looking at the current open market.
Matterson and Lane will be question marks for Parramatta, and the club may well be happy to wait while the duo of forwards negotiate elsewhere, with youngster Saxon Pryke the odd man out in this situation and, you'd imagine, likely to simply take his option.
