WESTERN Bulldogs captain Brad Johnson will be offered a one-year deal to play on in 2010, however, the fate of Jason Akermanis and Nathan Eagleton remains undecided.
Johnson, 33, is the only one of the veterans to have had his future confirmed before the end of the AFL exchange period.
He will be presented with the new contract once the club completes its list changes this week.
"It's fair to say Johnno will be offered a contract, sooner rather than later I would say, following today's work [in re-signing Brian Lake]," football operations manager James Fantasia told afl.com.au on Wednesday.
"There are still things that need to be ticked off. The rule of thumb is that you only offer one-year contracts once you get past 30, so that's what we're pitching.
"There's no actual timeframe to it, apart from having list lodgement completed before October 31. So we have time up our sleeve, but we'd like to get it finalised sooner rather than later."
Akermanis, 32, and Eagleton, 30, have told the club they wish to play on next year.
Fantasia said both players would have to wait until the end of this week before official word on their futures.
"We've said to all our uncontracted guys that we won't be talking to them or their managers until we've got through this week," he said.
"There are still a number of things we need to sign off on and work through, so we'll wait another week before we finalise where we're at.
"There's a tick for both of them in terms of their physical state and mentally where they are, and they've both indicated they will play.
"Now we need to make some decisions as a list management group."
Fantasia suggested that if the club's stretching salary cap and list management allowed it, Akermanis and Eagleton were likely to be retained.
"I don't want to speculate either way – even with me not giving a direct answer creates question marks – because we really just need to do our numbers," he said.
"We really need to look at the way it's shaping up. With a couple of days to go on trading, it's really got a bearing on what the outcomes are.
"All the way through, it's been thinking in two parts – are they in the right mental and the right physical condition to play on?
"That's been a big tick for the coaches, and now it comes down to list management and draft picks versus aging list versus landscape ... and also total player payments."
Coach Rodney Eade said the Dogs were unlikely to seek any other trades this week.
"We think we've got some good youngsters that have played some games now that can step up next year," he said.
"We thought it would be great if we could get a key forward, which we've got in Barry Hall.
"It's now just a matter of re-signing other players, so that's about what we'll do. We think the list we've got is pretty good at the moment.
"Unless there are some other clubs that are interested in some players that might not be here next year, that's about it from our point of view."