The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryan De Vries will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marco Colvey damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Waitakere United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Waitakere United training over how hard people work
Marco Colvey damages knee ligaments — 151 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 151 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Waitakere United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Monty Nelson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Deklan Sutton 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Jake Lewis 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.
“I did not go to Wellington Phoenix to sit and watch. I want to come back to Waitakere United and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Ryan De Vries
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Waitakere United will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Waitakere United can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryan De Vries will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jake Lewis 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Deklan Sutton 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Waitakere United, and 0 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Position 3, 11 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Waitakere United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jake Lewis 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 easiest signature of my career.” Monty Barbarouses and Waitakere United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Waitakere United, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rory McDonald is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 6 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marco Colvey 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Deklan Sutton 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Waitakere United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryan De Vries will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Waitakere United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Waitakere United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Marco Colvey has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Marco Colvey 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Deklan Lewis has improved at 33, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Deklan Sutton 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.
“I watch every Waitakere United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wellington Phoenix runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.