Marked for Mark Morrison
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market31 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Central Coast Mariners have paid $670.0K for Promise Omochere, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Plymouth Argyle is saying, and nobody at Central Coast Mariners is enjoying the guessing.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Central Coast Mariners spend $670.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $670.0K for Promise Omochere, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Central Coast Mariners asked and Grimsby Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
AFC Wimbledon 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Melbourne City for Haine Eames was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Bristol Rovers this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Wrexham keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Trent Sainsbury 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Central Coast Mariners asked and Stockport County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cameron Baker and Central Coast Mariners agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Carlo Armiento would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Carlo Armiento is living that version at Central Coast Mariners, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Trent Sainsbury 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Central Coast Mariners asked and AFC Wimbledon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adam Lawrence has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Thomas 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. Mark Morrison 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. Cameron Baker 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Central Coast Mariners have made the call to Stockport County. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.