Tim Rufer

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17 Sep 2028
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Marked for Tim Rufer

110 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad4 Sep 2028

Tim Rufer is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 16 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.

Squad4 Sep 2028

Dane Colvey 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 Hawke's Bay United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market4 Sep 2028

Auckland City join the queue for Alex Lockyer

Add another name to the list: Auckland City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alex Lockyer. The answer from Hawke's Bay United has not changed — yet.

Squad4 Sep 2028

Marco Colvey gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad4 Sep 2028

Ben Smith 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.

Boardroom4 Sep 2028

Hawke's Bay United release $870.7K for the manager

The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.

Market4 Sep 2028

Southern United expected to open talks for Ben Smith

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Hawke's Bay United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Market4 Sep 2028

The Mark Burns question follows Hawke's Bay United around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mark Burns’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Market4 Sep 2028

Owen Lewis leaves for nothing

Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Owen Lewis leaves Hawke's Bay United the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.

In brief

Back issues
106 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

7 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad7 Aug 2028

Real improvement from Tim Rufer at Hawke's Bay United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tim Rufer is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad7 Aug 2028

Dane Colvey 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 Hawke's Bay United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market7 Aug 2028

Auckland City join the queue for Alex Lockyer

Add another name to the list: Auckland City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alex Lockyer. The answer from Hawke's Bay United has not changed — yet.

Boardroom7 Aug 2028

Hawke's Bay United release $870.7K for the manager

The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.

Market7 Aug 2028

Southern United expected to open talks for Ben Smith

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Hawke's Bay United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Squad7 Aug 2028

When it matters, Michael Lockyer plays

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.

Market7 Aug 2028

Jai Just told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jai Just has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Hawke's Bay United.

Squad7 Aug 2028

The manager makes an example of Ben Smith

“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.

Market7 Aug 2028

The Mark Burns question follows Hawke's Bay United around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mark Burns’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

97 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad5 Jun 2028

A knee injury of the worst kind for Clayton Payne

18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hawke's Bay United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad5 Jun 2028

A fracture rules James Lewis out for 70 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hawke's Bay United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market5 Jun 2028

Ben Smith puts it in writing

“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 Hawke's Bay United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market5 Jun 2028

Only the photograph left for Ben Smith

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ben Smith will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hawke's Bay United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad5 Jun 2028

Real improvement from Tim Rufer at Hawke's Bay United

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tim Rufer is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad5 Jun 2028

Tempers go at Hawke's Bay United

Dane 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.

In brief

64 Edition

The Hawke's Bay United Courier

18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad18 Oct 2027

A knee injury of the worst kind for Owen Lewis

99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hawke's Bay United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market18 Oct 2027

Stefan Colvey hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hawke's Bay United can pretend not to have heard.

Squad18 Oct 2027

Tempers go at Hawke's Bay United

Dane 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.

Boardroom18 Oct 2027

5 academy players handed senior numbers at Hawke's Bay United

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Match16 Oct 2027

Winston Nelson the difference as Hawke's Bay United beat WaiBOP United

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Winston Nelson. 2‑1 against WaiBOP United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market18 Oct 2027

Hawke's Bay United promote James Lewis from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. James Lewis 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.

Market18 Oct 2027

Hawke's Bay United promote Deklan Boxall from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Deklan Boxall 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.

Market18 Oct 2027

Tim Rufer steps up from the Hawke's Bay United academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tim Rufer 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.

Squad18 Oct 2027

Victor Odhiambo gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief