Kosta Nelson

Central Defender - Waitakere United
5 Nov 2026
Thursday
Process

Marked for Kosta Nelson

12 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Ben Fenton out for 110 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.

Squad

3 goals for Liberato Tuiloma

The match ball belongs to Liberato Tuiloma, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Market

Only the photograph left for Jai Lockyer

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jai Lockyer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Kosta Nelson is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Tempers go at Waitakere United

Hamza Asrir 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.

Match

Liberato Tuiloma among the goals in a wild afternoon

8 goals in one match, Liberato Tuiloma on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Waitakere United and Team Wellington.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Waitakere United

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Liberato Tuiloma

Marked 9.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Liberato Tuiloma

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

In brief

Back issues
8 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Only the photograph left for Jai Lockyer

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jai Lockyer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Real improvement from Kosta Nelson at Waitakere United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kosta Nelson is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Boardroom

Waitakere United to lose Jai Lockyer for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jai Lockyer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

In brief