Marked for Michael Sutton
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jan 2028
Rewa refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Rewa
Tevita Waranaivalu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rewa can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Dec 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 Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Rewa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matt McCowatt 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.
Market13 Dec 2027
He is 18, and nobody at Rewa signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Leon Kofana has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rewa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Bill 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 Rewa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Aug 2027
Matt Garbett 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 Team Wellington can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ben Bell is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Joe Kirwan 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 Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Joe Kirwan has improved at 27, 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Cameron Rufer 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.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“I watch every Team Wellington game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Acre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.