Marked for Logan Phillips
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Auckland FC
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Auckland FC is running low.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Lachlan Brook 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 ratings16 Oct 2028
A performance of 9.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Marked 8.96 — 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.
Squad16 Oct 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Logan Phillips and Auckland FC agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Noah Crawford has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Auckland FC can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Lachlan Brook 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“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.
Loan watch2 Oct 2028
“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 Auckland FC, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Market2 Oct 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lachlan Brook signs something — a contract at Auckland FC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
$3.1M taken back off the Auckland FC table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Market2 Oct 2028
Still no offer on the table, and Kamohelo Pheeane’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Loan watch2 Oct 2028
5 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Auckland FC will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.