Jake Cacace

Right Midfielder - Waitakere United
3 Jan 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Jake Cacace

18 Edition

The Waitakere United Sentinel

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Noah Lockyer hands in a written request

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Sam Waine

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sam Waine will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Waitakere United

Eli Johnson 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Kosta Kirwan

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kosta Kirwan, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at Waitakere United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen 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.

Market

The Noah Lockyer question follows Waitakere United around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Noah Lockyer’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

When it matters, Bill Rufer plays

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.

Looking ahead

Home comforts ahead for Waitakere United

Southern United, position 6, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.

The dugout

Noah Lockyer keeps his manager's vote

The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Noah Lockyer plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.

In brief