Marked for Tuimasi Goundar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Dec 2028
Nadroga are in real trouble now
Position 9, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tuimasi Goundar
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nadroga lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Dec 2028
14 days out for Semesa Sacere after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nadroga will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Nadroga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roy Sauturaga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roy Sauturaga, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
Tuimasi Goundar damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Semesa Sacere out for 21 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nadroga will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
Nadroga counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Nadroga now.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Amani Tuyaga 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 Dec 2028
One of our own: Maleli Waqa joins the Nadroga first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maleli Waqa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
Tuimasi Goundar damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
28 days out for Semesa Sacere after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nadroga will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market4 Dec 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nadroga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Nadroga
Patrick Tuisese and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nadroga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad4 Dec 2028
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nadroga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
Anger at Nadroga spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad27 Nov 2028
35 days out for Semesa Sacere after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nadroga will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Nadroga boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Semesa Sacere 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 dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilaisa Bari, and the manager let it.
Market27 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Steward Toata’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Taniela Tuyaga has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nadroga 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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Ratu Krishna asks for a word with the manager
“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
Uneasy
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nadroga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nadroga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Belts tighten at Nadroga
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilaisa Bari, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
Ilaisa Bari 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 Ilaisa Bari is on it.
Market21 Aug 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Barrie Limoki signs something — a contract at Nadroga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.