At the end of each season, from November 1, you can have open communication with your club and other teams with regards to your future beyond the next year.
If your current club doesn't want to make a decision but you decide you want your long term future secured, you make a call – either go where your next move is guaranteed, or wait for your current club to come back to you.
It's a brutal industry and an even more brutal game. We all know we're only one training session or game away from a serious injury.
Playing in the NRL has a very short shelf life and we're all going to be around with our families long after our footy lives have finished.
Having a contract that is guaranteed for a set period of time helps provide stability in an often unstable environment.
And all clubs are aware of November 1.
If you're a priority to retain they'll look to get it done as soon as possible. If you're not they won't, or look for a reason to delay it, and as soon as that happens doubt around your future creeps in.
The new proposal – which could see three transfer windows a year – could lead to some tough decisions.
Brandon Smith strips the ball from Bunty Afoa. Photo / Photosport
Boys could be traded, sold, bought after six months and have to pack up and move their lives again.
That happens in different sports around the world, but it has never happened in ours, so would be a significant shift for everyone.
There are a lot of questions still to be answered. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and I'd hate to see players treated like commodities, like we see in American sports.
The ball-stripping rule has been another hot topic.
I can understand why people might find it exciting, adding a bit of uncertainty to the game.
I had no dramas with the one-on-one strip, but I think the new rule puts a lot more pressure on referees to make a decision which can have significant ramifications on games.
It's such a contentious area — as we saw in our game against the Eels a few weeks ago — and if you get the wrong call coming out of your own end it can have a massive impact.
The potential for a big game to be determined by a mistake in that area is real. When that happens, I'm sure we'll all be talking about it a lot more.
We also don't want to see ball-carriers in our sport start looking like NFL running backs, where their arms are completely wrapped around the ball. The rule used to be quite clear, but now it is really grey, and grey never goes down well in the NRL.
Kodi Nikorima has trained well this week and looks positive for Sunday, as long as he gets through Saturday's captain's run. Hopefully he does, and it will be good to have him back out there.
The Roosters have been really good this year and were very effective against the Raiders last week.
They are unbeaten at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2019 and one of the high end teams of the competition.
I imagine most people don't give us a chance but we can turn that into a positive; just like last week, dive into it, bring some real intent along with composure and make a good fist of things.
We also have some good memories of our last encounter in Sydney (a 30-6 round four win in 2018), which was a really good performance in afternoon conditions.
