Deklan Payne

Goalkeeper - Waitakere United
12 Feb 2027
Friday
Process

Marked for Deklan Payne

19 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Ryan Just 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 The request is on a desk at Waitakere United, and it is not being withdrawn.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

Words exchanged at Waitakere United

Nathan Garrow 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Waitakere United against Team Wellington

1‑3 to Team Wellington, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Alex Van Hattum 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.

Match

Waitakere United at the halfway mark

Half the programme played, position 6, 5 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.

Squad

Deklan Payne stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Deklan Payne and Waitakere United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

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 1‑3 Liberato Lockyer left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Waitakere United keep their word to Alex Van Hattum

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

Squad

Cameron De Vries slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Cameron De Vries is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

In brief