Plan the squad on the whiteboard

The Roster tab records the decisions you've made; the Planner is where you try the ones you haven't. Put the squad on a pitch, move players, pencil in a target or a placeholder, and the board prices itself and checks itself against the competition rules as you go. You find out whether a shape is affordable and legal before anyone is offered a deal.

• The Planner is a tab inside Contracts, and it plans the roster of the programme you have open.
• Know what's a sketch and what isn't. Placements, formations, cover order, planning wages and a board's budget stay on that board. Contracts, signings and releases never happen here. The people you pencil in are real, though. Place a target, a youth player or a placeholder and they join the roster as planned, alongside the Roster tab's No contract yet and Recruiting lists, and every board sees them.

The first time you open it, you'll see A draft is a whiteboard for the squad — drag players onto the pitch and watch budget and compliance react live. and Start a custom draft. The season's own board is there too. It starts from the squad as it stands, which in a first season is nobody.

Harbourview's Women's side made its first one, 2027 shape — v1, before anyone was on the roster. The pitch is empty in a 4-3-3, the drawer reads No signed players yet, and the figures across the top are the club's: $0 forecast against the $90,000 budget.

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Placeholders are the way to fill it from here. Tap a position, choose Add a placeholder, and give it a label and a projected wage (see Plan people you haven't signed). Each one joins the roster as a planned position, so the board is also how the roster gets its first shape.

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Boards run across the top in date order, and Clubhouse keeps the calendar ones for you. On Harbourview's Men's roster in late September they read Past, 2026 Aus Champs and 2027 Season, each with its forecast against its budget underneath. The 2026 Season board has already moved under Past, because that season has finished.

• The season board starts from the squad as it stands.
• The mid-season board plans the competition's mid-season registration window. It appears once the season starts and goes when the window shuts.
• Next season's board is there as soon as next season is set up, so you can plan ahead while this one is still being played.
• A Championship board plans the campaign, priced by how far you go.

Custom drafts come from New draft (the + at the end of the boards) and start blank. Each one's menu offers Rename, Duplicate and Delete; the calendar boards only offer Duplicate. Delete this draft? removes that draft for good and leaves the others alone.

When a board locks. Once a calendar board's registration window has closed, a padlock appears on it and its squad is fixed: no new people, no removals, and no wage or budget changes. You can still rearrange positions and cover, and switch its scenario, because that's still the team you're fielding. To keep experimenting, Duplicate it into a draft. Next season's board and custom drafts never lock. Once a season has finished, its boards move under Past, frozen completely and with nothing to duplicate, as the record of what you planned.

Undo, redo and full screen sit at the top right, and every change saves as you make it.

Each position holds a starter and up to two cover, ranked Starter, Cover 2 and Cover 3. Pick the formation with the button at the bottom left of the pitch, which shows the current shape and opens every 11-a-side shape drawn as a small pitch: the standard ones, your club's own and any you've made. New shape there lets you draw one of your own, as the formations answer explains.

• From the drawer. The drawer on the left has three lists: Roster, your youth players (named for your youth squad, such as U20s, or Play-ups where there isn't one) and Targets. Drag a player onto the pitch, or tap them to open their profile and choose a position under Add to lineup.
• From a position. Tap a spot on the pitch to see its ranked list. Add starter or Add cover lets you pick from all three lists, with Add a placeholder at the bottom. Reorder with the arrows; the top row starts.

Two different removals sit on a player's profile, and they aren't the same thing. Remove from this lineup takes them off this board only. Remove from this roster deletes a planned person from the roster itself, on every board and on the Roster tab. It's only offered for people who haven't signed.

If someone leaves the real roster, the board keeps their spot as a ghost, marked No longer on the roster. The numbers leave them out until you clear the spot.

The figures across the top price the board as you move people: Forecast, Budget and Remaining. On Harbourview's 2027 Season board that's a $432,600 forecast against a $620,000 budget, leaving $187,400. The scenario picker sits beside them, with the same choices as the Budget card, so a board can be priced for a title run while the Roster tab shows current form.

Two overrides turn a board into a genuine what-if. Both apply to that board alone:

• Board budget. Tap the Budget figure. Sets the spending limit for this board only — your live squad and other boards aren't affected. The figure is marked Custom while it's changed, and Reset to season cap puts it back.
• Planning wage. Tap a player's position, then their wage. The same full wage model as a contract: Weekly base, Match bonuses, Performance bonuses and a One-off lump sum. Model a re-negotiation or a raise while the real contract stays as it is. Reset to contract undoes it (Clear estimate for someone unsigned).

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A board mixes certainty levels, and it prices each one:

• Signed players are priced at their contract unless you've set a planning wage.
• Targets come from your recruitment pipeline. Add target searches your club, the pipeline and Dribl, and whoever you add joins the pipeline and appears in Targets on every board. Place a target with no wage and Add a projected wage asks for one, because an unpriced move is a guess. The weekly base is saved to the target's recruitment record; the bonuses stay on this board.
• Placeholders hold a position before you know who fills it. Add placeholder takes a label such as Placeholder Centre Back and a projected wage. Holds the position in this plan and counts toward the budget until you sign someone.

Remove from targets takes a target out of the pipeline and off every board's list. It asks first, and you can restore them from the Recruitment page under View removed targets.

Switch the pitch from Lineup to Compliance to check the board against the roster's rule set, the same checks as the roster's compliance summary. It reads All green — compliant and under cap, or counts the issues and warnings and names each one. A Championship board is checked against the Australian Championship rules.

On a points-capped rule set, an empty squad slot costs more points than a real player, so a blank squad starts exactly on the cap and every signing takes it further under. If the club carries points deductions, a half-built squad can start over. The board then says Squad not built yet rather than telling you to cut points.

A plan becomes real the ordinary way: write the deal and get it signed. As the signatures land, the Roster tab and the boards both firm up.

Placeholders show on the Roster tab as one counted, priced line under Recruiting. It opens Planned positions (Budgeted slots with nobody named for them yet.), which reminds you that To give one of these a name, place a target on it in the Planner. Removing one asks Remove this position? Its budget comes off the forecast.

• Next season has a board you'd take to the club's directors: priced, compliant, with its guesses visible as targets and placeholders.
• Every target on a board carries a projected wage.
• The Roster tab's Planned positions match what you actually intend, not leftover sketches.
• Old boards sit under Past as the record of what you planned, rather than deleted.