Marked for Sam Gray
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Sep 2030
Haine Eames 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kaito Taniguchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Jing Reec 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.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Andriano Lebib has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Central Coast Mariners that is a harder question to answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad16 Sep 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Central Coast Mariners can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Haine Eames and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market16 Sep 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sam Gray 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.
Market16 Sep 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hayden Williams 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.
Market16 Sep 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jamie Morrison 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.
Market16 Sep 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tate Riley is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Oliver Lavale
“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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
No place for Noah DuPont in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Central Coast Mariners are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.