Marked for Yash Kumar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nadroga people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nadroga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ba keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Josua Tawake for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nadroga will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ba have kept their man, and Nadroga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Semesa Sacere 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Misaele Nakaci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roy Raju has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nasinu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nadroga is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Ronesh Kumar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nadroga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Sitiveni Begg
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sitiveni Begg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nadroga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nadi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Semesa Sacere 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
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Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Nadroga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taniela Raubula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuela Jale and Nadroga agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nadroga can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nadroga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nadroga have done the hard part with Navua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasinu have kept their man, and Nadroga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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Looking ahead28 Jun 2027
Top-of-the-table clash for Nadroga
Nadi next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Nadroga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taniela Raubula 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.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Nadroga had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tevita Singh commits to Nadroga for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 May 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings31 May 2027
A brace, and Epeli Hughes takes the afternoon — 9.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Epeli Hughes provided it, and the 9.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Maleli Tuinakauvadra, 14, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 14-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market31 May 2027
Tony Nair hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nadroga can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 May 2027
Nobody wants to play Nadroga right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad31 May 2027
14 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match29 May 2027
Epeli Hughes among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Epeli Hughes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Nadroga and Navua.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Nadroga
Barrie Limoki 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.
Match29 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Epeli Hughes. 4‑2 against Navua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Nadroga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sakeo Taganeca 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Nadroga
Semesa Sacere 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The training reports on Yash Kumar are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.