The Hawke's Bay United Courier
Squad19 Oct 2026
James Lewis breaks a bone — 29 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Callum De Vries runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Owen 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
Michael Fenton 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Noah Sutton has improved at 25, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Graduation day at Hawke's Bay 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Hawke's Bay United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Sutton 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
One of our own: Alex Singh joins the Hawke's Bay United first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alex Singh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market19 Oct 2026
Michael Fenton steps up from the Hawke's Bay United academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michael Fenton has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
- Market Liberato Van Hattum steps up from the Hawke's Bay United academy
- Match A bad afternoon for Hawke's Bay United against WaiBOP United
- Loan watch Tim Boxall wants to come home