Marked for Dane Waine
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jake Tuiloma commits to Southern United for another 3 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Cameron Garbett 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.
Match14 Dec 2026
Position 4, 10 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad14 Dec 2026
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Dane Waine gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Oliver Rufer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Southern United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Southern United lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Dane Waine, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oliver Rufer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Team Wellington to sit and watch. I want to come back to Southern United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Canterbury United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The training reports on Jai McCowatt are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ben De Vries 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 Southern United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jai Colvey is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dane Waine, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Auckland City in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market12 Oct 2026
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Southern United could get for him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The penny has dropped for Jeremy Foo
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Southern United the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Sep 2026
59 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ben De Vries 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Southern United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Rufer 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Cameron Garbett
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.