Sam Boxall

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Team Wellington
2 Dec 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Sam Boxall

58 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Hassan El Hattab damages knee ligaments — 25 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.

Market

Christian Bracco agrees terms with Waitakere United

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Team Wellington people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom

Team Wellington close the window on a squad of their own making

9 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Squad

The step up is real for Jack Mihailidis

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.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Deklan Kirwan

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

Squad

Tempers go at Team Wellington

Walter Scott 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.

Squad

A late step up for Willem Ebbinge

At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Market

One of our own: Bill Singh joins the Team Wellington first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bill Singh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

One of our own: Ben Lewis joins the Team Wellington first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ben Lewis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

Back issues
13 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ryan Waine breaks a bone — 85 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Words exchanged at Team Wellington

Ruon Tongyik 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.

Squad

James Donachie has improved at 33, 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.

Player ratings

Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

A bad afternoon for Team Wellington against Auckland City

0‑1 to Auckland City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Words at Team Wellington training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Bell 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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Matt Lockyer left the room before anybody could ask which.

Market

The Ruon Tongyik question follows Team Wellington around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ruon Tongyik’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Christian Bracco left out for tactical reasons at Team Wellington

The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

In brief

5 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Joe Fenton is a medical away from Team Wellington

The deal with Canterbury United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

A falling-out at Team Wellington

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

Transfer targets

Team Wellington rebuffed over Dane Just

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Canterbury United have kept their man, and Team Wellington go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Owen Bell 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.

Transfer targets

Team Wellington try to borrow Joe Van Hattum

Waitakere United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Squad

The formation has left Jake Van Hattum behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Team Wellington will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

In brief

4 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Jake Van Hattum due for a Team Wellington medical

Everything agreed with Waitakere United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Matthew Acton 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 Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Angus Kilkolly

Team Wellington asked and Auckland City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Team Wellington finally fill the problem position with Jordan Vale

Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Jordan Vale has been signed to close it.

Squad

Adama Coulibaly needs a bigger stage

He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Team Wellington know which stage they are at.

Market

Talks stall between Team Wellington and Adama Coulibaly

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Joe Fenton is in the works

Team Wellington have made the call to Canterbury United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Squad

Sam Boxall stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Sam Boxall and Team Wellington agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

No place for Ryan Waine in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Team Wellington are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

In brief

3 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Adam Bell will not be coming to Team Wellington

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Auckland City is saying, and nobody at Team Wellington is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Ruon Tongyik 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 Team Wellington this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Team Wellington

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Willem Ebbinge was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Team Wellington ask about Joe Fenton

A loan enquiry to Canterbury United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Squad

The formation has left Owen Bell behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Team Wellington will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

Squad

Competition arrives for Steven Lustica

A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Team Wellington have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.

In brief

2 Edition

The Team Wellington Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Adam Bell due for a Team Wellington medical

Everything agreed with Auckland City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

Alfie Rogers will not be coming to Team Wellington

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Auckland City is saying, and nobody at Team Wellington is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

A falling-out at Team Wellington

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

Market

Team Wellington promote Callum Garbett from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Callum Garbett 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.

Market

Team Wellington promote Oliver Van Hattum from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oliver Van Hattum 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.

Market

One of our own: Sam Boxall joins the Team Wellington first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sam Boxall is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

One of our own: Jake Fenton joins the Team Wellington first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jake Fenton is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

Steven Lustica needs a bigger stage

He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Team Wellington know which stage they are at.

Squad

12 new faces, and Team Wellington are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

In brief