Marked for Saula Matarai
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tailevu Naitasiri have kept their man, and Lautoka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Lautoka
Sitiveni Cavuilagi 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohammed Alam has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market4 Jan 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Nadroga will make the call about Epeli Vunibola this week. Lautoka have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market4 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Senirusi Bokini has his answer from Lautoka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market4 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sairusi Nalaubu signs something — a contract at Lautoka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Open for business: Lautoka enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Lautoka
Mohammed Alam and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Lautoka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Savenaca Nakalevu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alipate Raju and Lautoka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Isimeli Gavidi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes Zibraaz Sahib a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lautoka. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Saula Waqa’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Lautoka out of the cup
Nadi ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Lautoka
Poasa Bainivalu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 Lautoka players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Lautoka
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dave Qaraniqio after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Savenaca Nakalevu 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Mohammed Alam dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Saula Matarai is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lautoka has been clear about where Saula Matarai stands, which is more than many ever get.