Marked for Taniela Prasad
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Rewa
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rewa is running low.
Market10 Feb 2031
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Setareki Hughes has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rewa 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.
Market10 Feb 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Rewa will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Feb 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Filipe Matai's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jul 2030
174 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market8 Jul 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rewa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Jul 2030
At 20, Michael Payne is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Rewa have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Setareki Hughes and Rewa agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rewa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Boardroom
Rewa sign 5 boys into the academy
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Market
The Josaia Sela talk will not go away
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Market
Faza Al Firdaus runs his contract down
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Boardroom
The Rewa production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jun 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 Jun 2030
The wait goes on for Rewa
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market3 Jun 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rewa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Rewa
Tevita Waranaivalu 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.
Market3 Jun 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rewa have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Jun 2030
The manager makes an example of Leon Kofana
“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.
Player ratings3 Jun 2030
Nobody could get near Ben Waine
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Nickel Begg named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nickel Begg is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market3 Jun 2030
Taniela Prasad is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rewa has been clear about where Taniela Prasad stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Mar 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Michael Payne, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Tempers go at Rewa
Tevita Waranaivalu 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.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Marked 9.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match9 Mar 2030
A 1‑0 win over Tailevu Naitasiri, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michael Payne, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Taniela Prasad and Rewa agree another 3 years.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market11 Mar 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rewa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.