Marked for Dane Rufer
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.75 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Waitakere United had the best player on the pitch.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“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 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dane Rufer 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jake Just, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Noah Stamatelopoulos, 18 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” WaiBOP United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Waitakere United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dane Rufer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexander Pearson has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Canterbury United for Dane Rufer 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
40 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Jordan Vale rejects the move
Waitakere United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Auckland City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Max Wilson 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Francis Colvey pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommy Just was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Kirwan, and the manager let it.