Marked for Malakai Kumar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Nov 2027
Labasa sink to position 9
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Labasa
Lebogang Mokotjo 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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Sahil Deo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Labasa is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Akeimi Ralulu 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
18 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Labasa now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Belts tighten at Labasa
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lebogang Mokotjo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Nov 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
The name of Samuel Navoce keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Labasa say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Labasa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Nov 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Labasa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Labasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aporosa Yada 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.
Squad15 Nov 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 Labasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Iliesa Lino's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Iowane Matanisiga keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Labasa say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Nov 2027
Labasa have let the market know Samuel Navoce can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Labasa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Labasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akeimi Ralulu 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Labasa
Nemani Dolodai 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
International break empties Labasa
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Iowane Matanisiga has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Labasa will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Iowane Matanisiga is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Market8 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aporosa Yada’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market8 Nov 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nemani Dolodai may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Nov 2027
Labasa sink to position 9
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Nov 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Labasa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Labasa
Lebogang Mokotjo 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Sahil Deo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Labasa is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Labasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aporosa Yada 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Labasa counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Labasa now.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Iowane Matanisiga was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sekove Naivakananumi is on it.
Market1 Nov 2027
The name of Samuel Navoce keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Labasa say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 Oct 2027
The mood at Labasa has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Labasa
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Labasa is running low.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Malakai Kumar
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Labasa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Aporosa Yada 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 Labasa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Labasa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilaisa Vulimainavuso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Samuel Navoce knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Navoce trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nemani Dolodai is on it.
Market25 Oct 2027
The name of Joji Vuakaca keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Labasa say nothing, which says plenty.
Market25 Oct 2027
Labasa have made Joji Vuakaca available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.