The Hawke's Bay United Courier
Match27 Sep 2027
Hawke's Bay United refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 22 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The step up is real for Winston Cacace
At 23 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tim 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 Hawke's Bay United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Liberato Rufer has improved at 31, 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Hawke's Bay United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Winston Cacace 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Hawke's Bay United sign Dane Stamatelopoulos, one for the future
Dane Stamatelopoulos is 16, and Hawke's Bay United have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
- The dugout When it matters, Liberato Rufer plays
- Market Callum Smith leaves for nothing
- Market Dane Rufer leaves for nothing
- The dugout Liberato Rufer keeps his manager's vote