It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Adelaide United can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Theoharous is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adelaide United can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dylan Pierias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tate Burns after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Bart Vriends's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Adelaide United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Joshua Smits and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Pierias is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Adelaide United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1 for Isaac Hughes, marked 7.57, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Clayton Taylor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Theoharous is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Tate Burns to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Adelaide United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Joshua Smits was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Adelaide United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adelaide United can pretend not to have heard.
11 seasons and 322 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Adelaide United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Adelaide United told Ajak Riak something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Pierias trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adelaide United can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Panagiotis Kikianis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ellis Litherland-Riding and Adelaide United agree another 3 years.
“I watch every Adelaide United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brisbane Roar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Adelaide United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Adelaide United know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Haine Eames and Adelaide United agree another 4 years.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Adelaide United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The offer from Perth Glory for Sotiri Phillis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajak Riak is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Adelaide United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Chelsea keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Sotiri Phillis has come up in conversations Adelaide United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Adelaide United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Adelaide United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joshua Smits is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ethan Cox and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Adelaide United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Adelaide United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adelaide United can pretend not to have heard.
Joshua Smits was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ajak Riak is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Adelaide United, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Adelaide United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Joshua Smits falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Adelaide United pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Adelaide United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Adelaide United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Max Vartuli has his answer from Adelaide United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Melbourne City? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Joshua Smits and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Theoharous was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joshua Smits and Adelaide United agree another 2 years.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Adelaide United know it.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Adelaide United now know that too.
The name of Max Vartuli has come up in conversations Adelaide United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.