Marked for Liberato Lewis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Chris Nelson breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I watch every Waitakere United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Auckland City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Francis Tuiloma, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Alex De Vries yet — 7.88
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kosta Smith 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Monty Barbarouses and Waitakere United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan Sutton 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francis Tuiloma. 2‑1 against Team Wellington, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommy Rufer has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jake Lewis, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Deklan Sutton 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Auckland City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Owen Lewis has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan Lewis 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.93 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Monty Barbarouses will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Monty Barbarouses has agreed terms with Auckland City for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adam White is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Deklan Sutton 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marco Colvey has improved at 31, 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.
Loan watch12 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 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Liberato Lewis is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Willem Ebbinge 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 34 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Willem Ebbinge 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nikko Boxall 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Liberato Lewis arrives from Waitakere United with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.