Joe Smith

Striker - Waitakere United
26 Nov 2026
Thursday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 35 Awards 4 Matches History

Marked for Joe Smith

14 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad2 Nov 2026

The knee: Kosta Wood out for 14 days

14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Waitakere United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad2 Nov 2026

A fracture rules Kai Johnston out for 49 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Waitakere United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match31 Oct 2026

Joe Smith leads the rout of WaiBOP United

4‑1, and Joe Smith took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Waitakere United tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings2 Nov 2026

Both of them Joe Smith's — 9.35

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings2 Nov 2026

Jake Fenton scores twice — 8.83

Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings2 Nov 2026

Sam Rufer, 21, steals the show — 7.89

Marked 7.89 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad2 Nov 2026

Noah Reid 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 Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad2 Nov 2026

Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jake Fenton 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 terraces2 Nov 2026

Waitakere United supporters have found a favourite in Sam Rufer

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sam Rufer has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

In brief

Back issues
12 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad19 Oct 2026

A knee injury of the worst kind for Kosta Wood

28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waitakere United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad19 Oct 2026

63 days out for Kai Johnston after a fracture

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

Market19 Oct 2026

Noah Reid asks to leave Waitakere United

“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.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

Age has not caught Jake Fenton yet — 7.94

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad19 Oct 2026

The step up is real for Sam Rufer

At 21 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

Owen Waine has improved at 29, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 5 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

One of those days for Joe Smith

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match17 Oct 2026

Jake Fenton rescues a point for Waitakere United

It needed Jake Fenton to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Team Wellington, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout19 Oct 2026

Somebody else is better right now than Tim Barbarouses

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

7 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad14 Sep 2026

Kai Johnston breaks a bone — 100 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad14 Sep 2026

A late step up for Owen Waine

At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.

Squad14 Sep 2026

A row about effort at Waitakere United

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jake Fenton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market14 Sep 2026

The clock does Jake Fenton’s negotiating for him

6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Waitakere United could ask drops and the wages Jake Fenton can ask rise.

Market14 Sep 2026

The market said no: Kosta Garbett stays put

Waitakere United opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Kosta Garbett stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.

Market14 Sep 2026

Waitakere United put Kosta Tuiloma up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Kosta Tuiloma may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

  • Squad The training reports on Joe Smith are not good
  • The dugout Tim Fenton keeps his manager's vote