Performance over the opening NRL rounds will determine who the Canberra Raiders look to lock in beyond this season.
The Raiders have a host of stars off contract at the end of the year, including Blake Austin, Shannon Boyd, Josh Papalii, Aidan Sezer, Junior Paulo and Sia Soliola.
But recruitment boss Peter Mulholland said they're not in a rush to re-sign them all before the season started, with how the Green Machine starts the 2018 campaign to play a factor.
They face Gold Coast, Newcastle, the New Zealand Warriors, Manly and Canterbury in the opening five rounds.
Mulholland confirmed the Raiders should now be salary cap compliant following the departure of back-up hooker Kurt Baptiste to Super League club Leigh Centurions, with an audit on January 29 hoped to confirm that.
He wasn't concerned other clubs could now poach their off-contract stars.
"Everyone's locked in for this year so I'll think we'll just sit back and look at and review what their pre-season's like and into the first four or five rounds, see where we're up to with players and what their performances are like," Mulholland said.
"I don't think there's any great rush at the moment. We'll look to lock them in, but it'll probably be a little bit of a timeframe on that.
"Everybody knows who's coming off contract and we didn't make the top eight last year so I don't think anybody's going to be clambering over us.
"Our priority's not to look outside, our priority's to sure up what we've got. And what we've got is a pretty good contingent, we've just got to wait and see how they all come back into the season."
Sezer's been linked as a target for the club he played his juniors for, the Canterbury Bulldogs, but again Mulholland said they weren't in a rush.
"Aidan's keen to stay, we'll be working on that one. There's no need to rush into it. He knows we're keen to keep him and we know he's keen to stay. That's where it is," he said.
Mulholland was excited by the Raiders' pre-season, even with the loss of star hooker Josh Hodgson (knee), as they look to bounce back from a disappointing 2017 campaign where they missed the finals to finish 10th.
"???I've not seen a better start to a pre-season at any club I've been at. It's a whole new focus, there's a whole new enthusiasm there, which is fantastic," he said.
"It's a tragic blow with Hodgson, but you've just got to get on with life don't you."
Meanwhile, the Raiders have signed Kangaroos and Penrith under-20s prop Stefano Hala.
