Sam Nelson

Striker - Retired
23 May 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Sam Nelson

32 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Waitakere United sink to position 6

8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Boardroom

Matt Smith has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Waitakere United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Market

Monty Singh puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Waitakere United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Callum Smith 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.

Squad

Bill Waine 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.

Squad

Waitakere United lose Sam Nelson

40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

The dugout

The manager's exit leaves Bill Waine exposed

Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Bill Waine is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.

Boardroom

$735.8K taken back off the Waitakere United table

What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.

Squad

A season on the outside for Tim Kirwan

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Waitakere United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

In brief

Back issues
9 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Oliver Fenton is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Waitakere United

Callum Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Tommy Kirwan 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.

In brief

5 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Sam Nelson 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 Waitakere United can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A falling-out at Waitakere United

Callum Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Business is business: Bill Lewis goes

Team Wellington paid $9.0K and Waitakere United took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Squad

Tim Cacace signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tim Cacace commits to Waitakere United for another 3 years.

Squad

Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Nelson 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.

Market

Monty Lewis told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Monty Lewis has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Waitakere United.

In brief

2 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Bill Waine breaks a bone — 27 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Bill Waine signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bill Waine and Waitakere United agree another 3 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Waitakere United

Callum Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Waitakere United rebuffed over Lorenz Ferdinand

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brighton have kept their man, and Waitakere United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

Dane Rufer gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A row about effort at Waitakere United

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

In brief

  • The dugout Bill Waine asks for a word with the manager
  • Market Sam Nelson is free to find somewhere else