Dane Smith

Central Defender - WaiBOP United
15 Nov 2026
Sunday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 16 Awards 2 Matches History

Marked for Dane Smith

15 Edition

The WaiBOP United Gazette

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad9 Nov 2026

A knee injury of the worst kind for Marco Reid

39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WaiBOP United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market9 Nov 2026

Dane Smith puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at WaiBOP United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match9 Nov 2026

WaiBOP United are in real trouble now

Position 6, 2 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match7 Nov 2026

4 matches without a win for WaiBOP United

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around WaiBOP United are no longer polite ones.

Squad9 Nov 2026

Tempers go at WaiBOP United

Alex 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.

Squad9 Nov 2026

Words at WaiBOP United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Winston Singh 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.

Loan watch9 Nov 2026

Luke Scott wants to come home

“I did not go to Brisbane Roar to sit and watch. I want to come back to WaiBOP United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.

Squad9 Nov 2026

No hiding place for Cameron Reid

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

Match7 Nov 2026

No goals between WaiBOP United and Auckland City

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Auckland City will be the happier side with the point.

In brief

Back issues
12 Edition

The WaiBOP United Gazette

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad19 Oct 2026

Marco Reid damages knee ligaments — 61 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

Deklan Payne could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.51

Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.51, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.

Player ratings19 Oct 2026

Winston Singh runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad19 Oct 2026

Real improvement from Sam Van Hattum at WaiBOP United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Van Hattum is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad19 Oct 2026

Alex Smith signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alex Smith commits to WaiBOP United for another 3 years.

Squad19 Oct 2026

A late step up for Dane Smith

At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.

Boardroom19 Oct 2026

Graduation day at WaiBOP United

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Match17 Oct 2026

A bad afternoon for WaiBOP United against Hawke's Bay United

1‑2 to Hawke's Bay United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Market19 Oct 2026

One of our own: Matt Waine joins the WaiBOP United first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matt Waine is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

8 Edition

The WaiBOP United Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad21 Sep 2026

Marco Reid damages knee ligaments — 89 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Real improvement from Sam Van Hattum at WaiBOP United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Van Hattum is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Winston Singh 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 WaiBOP United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief