Oliver Stamatelopoulos

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Auckland City U18
26 Jan 2027
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Oliver Stamatelopoulos

12 Edition

The Auckland City Post

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Marc Tokich

102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Auckland City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Auckland City

A 2‑5 beating by Southern United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Player ratings

Ryan De Vries scores twice — 8.27

Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Nathan Lobo is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Auckland City

Marc Tokich 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.

Squad

A late step up for Matt Ellis

At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Auckland City and Southern United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Auckland City

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Market

Chris Boxall steps up from the Auckland City academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Chris Boxall has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief