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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yash Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abhishek Ram 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Nadroga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yash Kumar 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ravinesh Reddy signs something — a contract at Nadroga or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steward Toata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Barrie Limoki 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Nadroga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yash Kumar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilaisa Tiko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Barrie Limoki 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Yash Kumar 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.
Rewa will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Theo Robinson has pre-agreed a move to Nadroga, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 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.
Position 6, 21 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Nadroga asked and Rewa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nadroga are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ravinesh Reddy signs something — a contract at Nadroga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Abhishek Ram 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nadroga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Barrie Limoki is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Nadroga than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nasinu? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ravinesh Reddy
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
20 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Nadroga had all but put away. Tailevu Naitasiri will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sitiveni Baledrokadroka after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Rewa next, and one man in the Nadroga dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ravinesh Reddy signs something — a contract at Nadroga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Sitiveni Baledrokadroka left the room before anybody could ask which.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nadroga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Lautoka had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A 2‑2 draw with Lautoka leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sitiveni Baledrokadroka was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Nadroga dressing room was either.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nadroga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nadi go through and Nadroga go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sitiveni Baledrokadroka after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Yash Kumar has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nadroga have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yash Kumar did not need any: 7.91, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.57 for the rest of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abhishek Ram. 3‑1 against Suva, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 7.07 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Abhishek Ram 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sitiveni Baledrokadroka kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Romit Narayan 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nadroga know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The minutes were not coming at Nadroga, so he will look for them at Nasinu. Everybody involved calls it development; for the player it is simply a chance to play.
Romit Narayan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdul Naviko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Joel Chand are not good
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Romit Narayan 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Nadroga that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nadroga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
That is the business done at Nadroga 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rewa is saying, and nobody at Nadroga is enjoying the guessing.
Sakeo Taganeca 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Nadroga than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.