There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Team Wellington scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Deklan Kirwan takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Deklan Kirwan provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Bubanja 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.
At 20 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Noah Reid could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutDan Edwards has become a man the manager trusts
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Liberato Tuiloma did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jai Kirwan and Hawke's Bay United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Marked 8.85 — 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.
At 21 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.
A 2‑0 win over Team Wellington, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Vladimir Bubanja 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.
At 20 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Corey Hollman, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 0‑2 Noah Reid left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at Team Wellington will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
Player ratingsDan Edwards beats them one at a time
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington 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 Christian Bracco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Marco Just 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 young player of the month award goes to a 17-year-old at Hawke's Bay United who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“I did not go to Team Wellington to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hawke's Bay United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Monty Wood 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Owen Stamatelopoulos has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Team Wellington lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Ruon Tongyik 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.
Everybody at Team Wellington saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Noah Reid to a room that had heard them before.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Team Wellington lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Vladimir Bubanja 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Josh Damevski and Team Wellington agree another 3 years.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Team Wellington know which stage they are at.
Waitakere United next, and one man in the Team Wellington dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oliver Stamatelopoulos and Hawke's Bay United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Team Wellington close the window on a squad of their own making
30 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Walter Scott 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsAn offer of $2.0K for Noah Garbett
“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.
Jake Lockyer 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.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Team Wellington lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ruon Tongyik 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.
$3.0K was the most the club would pay and Canterbury United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Team Wellington asked and WaiBOP United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Deklan Kirwan arrives from Hawke's Bay United with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Team Wellington lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ruon Tongyik 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.
Team Wellington asked and Waitakere United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Hawke's Bay United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
A season-long audition: Southern United still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Team Wellington's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Clayton Wood arrives from WaiBOP United with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.