Dane Sutton

Right Back - Hawke's Bay United
26 Nov 2026
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Marked for Dane Sutton

16 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market16 Nov 2026

Jai Cacace 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 Hawke's Bay United can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings16 Nov 2026

Joe Smith scores twice — 9.39

Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Kosta Lewis breaks a bone — 64 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Monty Rufer stands alone

7 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.

Match14 Nov 2026

Hawke's Bay United come up short against Southern United

Southern United left with the points after a 4‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings16 Nov 2026

Ben Lockyer beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Joe Smith 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 Hawke's Bay United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match14 Nov 2026

Nobody could stop scoring

9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hawke's Bay United and Southern United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Player ratings16 Nov 2026

Oliver Rufer in the eights

A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

  • Squad Words at Hawke's Bay United training over how hard people work
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Monty Smith
Back issues
12 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match17 Oct 2026

Bill Payne leads the rout of WaiBOP United

4‑0, and Bill Payne took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Hawke's Bay United tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

Both of them Bill Payne's — 8.94

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad19 Oct 2026

92 days out for Kosta Lewis after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hawke's Bay United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

A debut Dane Sutton will not forget — 7.66

There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.66 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.

Squad19 Oct 2026

The step up is real for Max Cummings

At 19 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.

Squad19 Oct 2026

Joe Smith 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 Hawke's Bay United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad19 Oct 2026

A late step up for Monty Rufer

At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Boardroom19 Oct 2026

2 academy players handed senior numbers at Hawke's Bay United

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

The terraces19 Oct 2026

One of their own: Dane Sutton

He is 16 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.

In brief