The Hawke's Bay United Courier
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Liberato Just
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hawke's Bay United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Dec 2026
Hawke's Bay United refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 18 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Marco Van Hattum out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hawke's Bay United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Dec 2026
9 unbeaten for Hawke's Bay United
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Hawke's Bay United did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Oliver 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Hawke's Bay United see off Waitakere United
Three points for Hawke's Bay United, 1‑0 the final word against Waitakere United in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
The afternoon belonged to Dane Lockyer
A mark of 7.59, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Hawke's Bay United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ben Colvey 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Deklan Just was immovable
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
- Player ratings Dane Stamatelopoulos runs at them all day
- Player ratings Nothing got past Ngcebo Nala