Dane Smith

Left Midfielder - Auckland City
17 Sep 2028
Sunday
Process

Marked for Dane Smith

98 Edition

The Auckland City Post

12 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Auckland City say no — this time

The offer from Canterbury United for Nathan Garrow 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.

Squad

Joshua Risdon 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 Auckland City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Jacob Addis is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Nikko Boxall has improved at 36, 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.

Squad

Sam McCowatt gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sam McCowatt has just signed for Auckland City, and for once the answer mattered.

Market

A long bet from Auckland City on Sam McCowatt

He is 19, and nobody at Auckland City signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.

In brief