Marked for Filipe Nawalu
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saula Matarai
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
9 new faces, and Lautoka are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saula Matarai
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Oct 2027
Lautoka refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Sitiveni Cavuilagi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
Saula Matarai damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Match27 Sep 2027
Lautoka up to position 3
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad27 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saula Matarai
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Aug 2027
Lautoka are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Sitiveni Cavuilagi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Maciu Tuinuku damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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 terraces30 Aug 2027
Anger at Nasinu spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
Pressure builds in the Nasinu boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
Maciu Tuinuku damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Nasinu
Adama Traoré 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nasinu told Isikeli Tovilo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saula Matarai
142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match2 Aug 2027
Lautoka are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Jun 2027
Lautoka march on in the cup
Suva are out and Lautoka go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lautoka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Saula Waqa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
Lautoka counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lautoka now.
Match19 Jun 2027
The run at home goes on for Lautoka
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match19 Jun 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Navua defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jun 2027
Cup progress for Nasinu
A 1‑0 win over Ba, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market21 Jun 2027
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Nasinu — 7.74
1 for Nodirbek Ahmadjonov, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Adama Traoré in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nasinu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Jun 2027
A bad afternoon for Nasinu against Labasa
2‑3 to Labasa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Filipe Nawalu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kalisito Veikoka 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.
Match19 Jun 2027
Nasinu hit back inside 4 minutes
Labasa held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Nasinu answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jone Naraba, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sitiveni Cavuilagi and Lautoka agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Lautoka
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Filipe Nawalu has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Christopher Lal 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Akuila Krishna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match6 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for Lautoka against Rewa
0‑1 to Rewa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Ilaisa Vulimainavuso 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.