Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Waitakere United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Noah Van Hattum is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Just trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Waitakere United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Aitor Morcillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilisoni Lolaivalu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Hawke's Bay United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The deal that would have taken Bill Lockyer to Team Wellington has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Waitakere United with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Morcillo 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Waitakere United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Aitor Morcillo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Waitakere United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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.
The offer from Southern United for Liberato Sutton 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Waitakere United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Morcillo 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.
Max Wilson 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.
Waitakere United have made the call to Canterbury United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Waitakere United no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Noah Van Hattum is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“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.
Aitor Morcillo 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.
Waitakere United asked and Auckland City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 3 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Waitakere United is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Position 3, 9 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aitor Morcillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Waitakere United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I did not go to Team Wellington to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jake Just was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Waitakere United dressing room was either.
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.
Stefan Stamatelopoulos 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.
“I did not go to Team Wellington to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Waitakere United would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
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 watch every Waitakere United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Team Wellington runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Waitakere United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
“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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tommy Just 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.
In brief
The dugoutCallum Nelson knocks on the manager's door
The offer from Hawke's Bay United for Max Wilson 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexander Pearson and Waitakere United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Max Wilson 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Naxxar Lions have kept their man, and Waitakere United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Walter Scott has just signed for Team Wellington, and for once the answer mattered.
James Donachie 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Team Wellington were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Team Wellington know which stage they are at.
Team Wellington have made the call to Waitakere United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
WaiBOP United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues is 19, and Team Wellington have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommy Just 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Waitakere United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.