“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waitakere United can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Deklan Sutton 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.
34 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.
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.
Noah Sutton has left for Hawke's Bay United in a $13.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Deklan Sutton 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Francis Tuiloma, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Kosta Smith 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Monty Barbarouses and Waitakere United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francis Tuiloma. 2‑1 against Team Wellington, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommy 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.51 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Waitakere United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Deklan Sutton 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Waitakere United and Southern United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 4 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Position 3, 7 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Marco Colvey 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Deklan Sutton 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.
“I did not go to Wellington Phoenix to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Deklan Sutton 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.
“I did not go to Auckland City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Owen Lewis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan Lewis 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.
Kosta Smith 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 31 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Monty Barbarouses will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Monty Barbarouses has agreed terms with Auckland City for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Deklan Sutton 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marco Colvey has improved at 31, 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Waitakere United, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francis Tuiloma is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kosta Smith has improved at 28, 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.
Marco Colvey 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.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jake Lewis has improved at 24, 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The offer from Canterbury United for Monty De Vries was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Marco Colvey 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Deklan Sutton 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 easiest signature of my career.” Monty Kirwan and Waitakere United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Deklan Sutton and Waitakere United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Deklan Sutton 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matt Smith 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Waitakere United, and both men came out saying it was fine.