Marked for Max Walker
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Epeli Leiroti out for 107 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lautoka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Sairusi Qiolevu 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Max Walker
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Lautoka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Junior Anand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lautoka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match11 Oct 2027
Lautoka in the hunt for Europe
Position 5, 22 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
114 days out for Epeli Leiroti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lautoka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Lautoka
Theo Robinson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Jayden Necovski
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A quiet fortnight at Lautoka
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Market4 Oct 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Shivam Naidu gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Shivam Naidu is on it.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Max Walker 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 Max Walker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market4 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sairusi Nalaubu signs something — a contract at Lautoka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Jayden Necovski: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lautoka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Lautoka
Saula Waqa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ba have kept their man, and Lautoka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Savenaca Nakalevu 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Shivam Naidu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lautoka 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Jun 2027
Lautoka out of the cup
Navua ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match19 Jun 2027
Lautoka win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Suva will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Theo Robinson goes up and wins it — 7.43
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.43 for the rest of it.
Match16 Jun 2027
7 goals as Lautoka and Navua go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Lautoka and Navua, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Saula Waqa 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 Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Jun 2027
Lautoka get the job done against Suva
A 3‑2 win over Suva, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market21 Jun 2027
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Al Hassan Touré, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rhyan Grant 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Brett Lewis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Alexandar Popovic
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sydney FC than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Central Coast Mariners came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Filip Kurto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sydney FC
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rhyan Grant was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Squad
Sydney FC are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
Max Walker asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sydney FC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Joe Lacey is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexandar Popovic damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $33.4K — a club that wants Diesel Herrington enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sydney FC
Filip Kurto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sydney FC have gone to Central Coast Mariners with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandar Popovic
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sydney FC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sydney FC have done the hard part with Levski, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Takahiro Sekine 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$58.0K on the table at Adelaide United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abel Walatee commits to Sydney FC for another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jarrod Patterson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Max Walker is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Adam Griffin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Darren Williams has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
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Squad
7 new faces, and Sydney FC are still learning each other
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The dugout
Rhys Youlley knocks on the manager's door