The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sydney FC had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Filip Kurto 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Oriola Sunday has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sydney FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Brad Smith
SquadQuestions about Ethan Cox on the training pitch
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand 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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sydney FC had all but put away. Adelaide United will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Sydney FC pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sydney FC close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The chase for Ethan Cox ended with $240.0K changing hands and Adelaide United out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Takahiro Sekine 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 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.
Marked 7.17 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Newcastle Jets had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Al Hassan Touré to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Newcastle Jets, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Alassana Jatta wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Alassana Jatta found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Perth Glory went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alassana Jatta provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Takahiro Sekine 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kane Vincent-Young was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tate Brown, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
15 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
1 for Rhys Youlley, marked 7.59, 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Trent Sainsbury commits to Sydney FC for another 1 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Rhys Youlley 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcel Tisserand was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tate Brown chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutCooper Hunter asks for a word with the manager
Takahiro Sekine 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Sydney FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Tisserand 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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tate Brown kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Cooper Hunter
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Oriola Sunday
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sydney FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Central Coast Mariners scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cooper Hunter is 14, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Takahiro Sekine 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.