Marked for Jonathan Kappen
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kishan Sami in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
A promise honoured at Ba
Something was said to Suliano Tawanakoro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The numbers do not look good at Ba
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Faazil Ali has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ba 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
The goals keep arriving from Penisoni Tirau’s exile
3 goals in 9 games at Navua — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ba updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
17 appearances at Rewa and the goals keep coming. Ba are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
18 starts now, an average of 6.69, and the team sheet at Rewa has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
18 starts and a season average of 6.65. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Jul 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Lautoka, and it could have been more.
Squad5 Jul 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market5 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market5 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Hayyaan Khan again, and this time the name on the line is Nasinu. Ba are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Malakai Rere and Ba agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Darold Kakasi at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ba.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Ba academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Ba
Etonia Dogalau 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonathan Kappen commits to Ba for another 3 years.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Ba counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ba now.
The dugout24 May 2027
Half-satisfied: Amani Raju on the draw
“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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Misiwani Nairube, and the manager let it.
Match22 May 2027
No goals between Ba and Nadroga
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Nadroga will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead24 May 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Patrick Joseph’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ba needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout24 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Suliano Tawanakoro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 May 2027
Ba are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 16 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 7.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Ruel Grayven
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruel Grayven will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match15 May 2027
The run is over for Ba
8 matches without defeat, and then Tailevu Naitasiri. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad17 May 2027
Jonathan Kappen arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonathan Kappen has, at Ba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match15 May 2027
Tailevu Naitasiri left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Peceli Sukabula and Ba agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.