Abdoulie Njie 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Wandile Ndisile has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Harry Steele has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Storm Roux 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Oliver Lavale was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Wandile Ndisile has written the date down.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Storm Roux 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.
Abdoulie Njie 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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Central Coast Mariners lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Central Coast Mariners, and it is not being withdrawn.
Central Coast Mariners asked and Egnatia Rrogozhinë said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Central Coast Mariners lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Melbourne City have kept their man, and Central Coast Mariners go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Storm Roux 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.
“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 Central Coast Mariners, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alfie McCalmont has come out of that comparison in the side, and Central Coast Mariners have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Central Coast Mariners lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anthony Moore after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Melbourne Victory next, and one man in the Central Coast Mariners dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutOliver Lavale knocks on the manager’s door
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Central Coast Mariners lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Melbourne City next, and one man in the Central Coast Mariners dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Played out of position, hooked on the hour, asked to be somebody he is not — the details vary and the mood does not. Central Coast Mariners have a player doing his work under protest.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Central Coast Mariners lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Storm Roux 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Central Coast Mariners has been clear about where Lucas Mauragis stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I watch every Central Coast Mariners game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wellington Phoenix runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7.76, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Central Coast Mariners had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Oliver Lavale
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Oliver Lavale has come out of that comparison in the side, and Central Coast Mariners have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The captaincy has been taken off Joshua Laws. Central Coast Mariners will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Newcastle Jets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The offer from Auckland FC for Harry Steele 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Central Coast Mariners, and both men came out saying it was fine.