Dane Smith

Left Midfielder - Canterbury United
20 Aug 2027
Friday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 3 Transfers Relations Events 41 Awards Matches History

Marked for Dane Smith

54 Edition

The Canterbury United Gazette

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad9 Aug 2027

The step up is real for Marco Tuiloma

At 22 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.

Market9 Aug 2027

Sam Rufer is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Canterbury United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets9 Aug 2027

The paperwork begins on Biel Rodríguez

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Canterbury United have done the hard part with Hawke's Bay United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets9 Aug 2027

Door shut on Jai Sutton

Canterbury United asked and WaiBOP United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad9 Aug 2027

A falling-out at Canterbury United

Kosta Stamatelopoulos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market9 Aug 2027

Auckland City are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Canterbury United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Squad9 Aug 2027

James Barbarouses signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” James Barbarouses commits to Canterbury United for another 3 years.

The dugout9 Aug 2027

The manager makes an example of Stefan Sutton

“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.

Squad9 Aug 2027

Dane Smith 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.

In brief

Back issues
51 Edition

The Canterbury United Gazette

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad19 Jul 2027

A knee injury of the worst kind for Kosta Colvey

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

Market19 Jul 2027

Tommy Colvey has said yes to Auckland City

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Canterbury United have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets19 Jul 2027

The paperwork begins on Joe Rufer

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Canterbury United have done the hard part with WaiBOP United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets19 Jul 2027

Hawke's Bay United tell Canterbury United: Ben Van Hattum is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad19 Jul 2027

Tempers go at Canterbury United

Bill Lockyer 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 dugout19 Jul 2027

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In brief

17 Edition

The Canterbury United Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings23 Nov 2026

Bill Lockyer was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match23 Nov 2026

Canterbury United sink to position 7

2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Match18 Nov 2026

The cup run ends for Canterbury United

0‑2 against Hawke's Bay United, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Player ratings23 Nov 2026

A debut Deklan McCowatt will not forget — 7.28

There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.28 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.

Match21 Nov 2026

The wait goes on for Canterbury United

6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad23 Nov 2026

A one-man rearguard from Kosta Colvey

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match21 Nov 2026

Canterbury United come up short against Auckland City

Auckland City left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout23 Nov 2026

Oliver De Vries faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver De Vries after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad23 Nov 2026

Bill Lockyer 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 Canterbury United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief