Marked for Ryan Smith
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Kosta Waine has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Southern United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ben Just and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Southern United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan De Vries 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ryan Smith named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ryan Smith is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Noah Kirwan without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Noah Kirwan was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Southern United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Southern United pull $380.7K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Southern United would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑3 against Auckland City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Oct 2026
41 days out for Dane Cacace after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Southern United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Ryan Smith
At 21 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ben Just and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 33 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Southern United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market19 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jake Rufer 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oliver Wood, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ricardo Caballero damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
48 days out for Dane Cacace after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Southern United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Deklan De Vries is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market12 Oct 2026
Jake Colvey 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 Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Southern United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ricardo Caballero
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Southern United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
70 days out for Dane Cacace after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Southern United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ryan Smith is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.