Marked for Noah Nelson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Liberato Tuiloma to Team Wellington has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Southern United with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Declan Simpson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Deklan Singh 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
$40.0K. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Southern United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Clayton Singh is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Southern United spend $40.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $40.0K for Tim Stamatelopoulos, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Noah Nelson 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Liberato Tuiloma 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Southern United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lungelo Kunene 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Deklan Singh 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Southern United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lungelo Kunene and Southern United agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Southern United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deklan 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Noah Boxall 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Noah Nelson knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Noah Nelson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
Monty Wood is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Southern United has been clear about where Monty Wood stands, which is more than many ever get.