Marked for Isikeli Waqa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Navua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Mar 2027
Navua win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Nadi will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market15 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Reeshab Permal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Reeshab Permal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navua the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Navua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Mekawir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match13 Mar 2027
Navua get the job done against Nadi
A 2‑1 win over Nadi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Navua
Matthew Charitar 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.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Ali Mekawir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Maleli Begg, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
The Rewa deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Voniani Smith reports back to Navua with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Ba, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lautoka have kept their man, and Navua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Filipe Baravilala 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Navua
Matthew Charitar 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Mohammed Ledua again, and this time the name on the line is Nadroga. Navua are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matthew Charitar, and the manager let it.
Market18 Jan 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Nadroga will make the call about Reeshab Permal this week. Navua have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan move for Tony Nair is in the works
Navua have made the call to Nadroga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Navua
Ali Mekawir 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Rewa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Voniani Smith. The answer from Navua has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Suva have kept their man, and Navua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Navua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filipe Baravilala 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Voniani Smith, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Isaac Raicama
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kolinio Sivoki signs something — a contract at Navua or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market11 Jan 2027
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Penisoni Tirau arrives from Ba with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Suva, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Navua
Ali Mekawir 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
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nadi have kept their man, and Navua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Isikeli Waqa joins the Navua first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Isikeli Waqa 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. Marlon Verevou 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Taniela Goundar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.