Auckland FC asked and Brisbane Roar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Auckland FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Words at Auckland FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršo 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.
Auckland FC have made the call to Newcastle Jets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Auckland FC can pretend not to have heard.
Auckland FC asked and Sydney FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jul 2033
Luka Pršo 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.
Marcus Cummings and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Auckland FC have made the call to Wellington Phoenix. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
In brief
The dugoutLiam Morrison asks for a word with the manager
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Auckland FC have done the hard part with Newcastle Jets, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Riley Dalziell 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.
Squad27 Jun 2033
Luka Pršo 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.
Riley Dalziell and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Luka Pršo 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.
Auckland FC have made the call to Melbourne City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Lachlan Brook is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Auckland FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Riley Dalziell 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.
7 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Squad30 May 2033
Luka Pršo 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Auckland FC will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Riley Dalziell 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 May 2033
Luka Pršo 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Auckland FC than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Auckland FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutCaleb Williams has become a man the manager trusts
Riley Dalziell 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Auckland FC prefer.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ethan Kennedy after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Mar 2033
Words at Auckland FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršo 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Auckland FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Auckland FC will try again when the window opens; Adelaide United may not be selling by then.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Auckland FC had all but put away. Melbourne Victory will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad14 Feb 2033
Words at Auckland FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršo 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutRiley Dalziell has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Caleb Williams
A brace, and Dean Bosnjak takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dean Bosnjak provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Auckland FC until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Adelaide United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Western Sydney Wanderers have kept their man, and Auckland FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Riley Dalziell 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sam Cosgrove is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Feb 2033
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Ethan Kennedy left the room before anybody could ask which.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Auckland FC have done the hard part with Perth Glory, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Everybody at Auckland FC saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Riley Dalziell 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Pršo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Pršo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Lachlan Brook is on it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Jarrod Duncan
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dean Bosnjak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Successful dribbles: 9. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Lachlan Brook
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Auckland FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Luka Pršo 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.
Squad20 Dec 2032
The division's best last weekend was a Auckland FC man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Jesse Randall was the best thing in any of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Adelaide United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsLachlan Brook beats them one at a time
BoardroomThe Auckland FC production line keeps running
1‑2 against Central Coast Mariners, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Auckland FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Melbourne Victory ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Auckland FC equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ethan Kennedy after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Pršo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The deal with Western Sydney Wanderers is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sydney FC have kept their man, and Auckland FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Riley Dalziell 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.
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Auckland FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršo 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.
Auckland FC have made the call to Brisbane Roar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Liam Morrison trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
54 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
$7.0K settles it between the clubs for Owen Harrison
Brisbane Roar have accepted the money. What Auckland FC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Auckland FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Auckland FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršo 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.
Newcastle Jets have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.