Marked for Ilaisa Goundar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
Rishal Shankar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Suva they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Suva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Suva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remueru Tekiate 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
Nishal Sharma is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Salesitino Caucau is on it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Suva the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 8.57 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Anare Baledrokadroka obliged against Ba. 2‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Suva.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Navua waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Suva is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Suva
Akuila Mateisuva 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 14 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Suva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Remueru Tekiate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Aug 2026
Ba snatch it back from Suva
A goal on 96 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.