The clubs have shaken hands with Tailevu Naitasiri; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with Tailevu Naitasiri, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jone Naraba 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Peni Ravai is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Epeli Nakaci is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Misaele Lal 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nasinu, and 1 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
20 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 10 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nasinu can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Suva kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Nasinu will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Position 10 on 8 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
A mark of 8.30 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nasinu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Dave Goundar, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maleli Baledrokadroka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nasinu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 15, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Dave Goundar, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Jone Naraba 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 Maikah Dau was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 9 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
8 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nasinu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bruce Hughes scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Nadi, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Napolioni Verevou 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Osea Kalounaiwai 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.
Tailevu Naitasiri go through and Nasinu go home, 3‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.47 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maleli Baledrokadroka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nasinu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amani Makoe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Jonetani Buksh 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.
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 dugout15 Mar 2027
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.” Nickel Baledrokadroka chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tailevu Naitasiri in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maleli Baledrokadroka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nasinu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jonetani Buksh 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nickel Baledrokadroka was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nasinu dressing room was either.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ashok Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Lautoka.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amani Makoe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nasinu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Navua next, and one man in the Nasinu dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Nasinu would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Jone Naraba 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Amani Makoe 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 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nasinu has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Jone Naraba 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 phone has started ringing about Maleli Baledrokadroka again, and this time the name on the line is Nadi. Nasinu are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Lautoka will make the call about Tito Kaumaitotoya this week. Nasinu have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jone Naraba 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Amani Makoe 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. Nasinu will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alipate Bari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alipate Bari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nasinu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Maikah Dau 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.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jone Naraba 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Napolioni Verevou 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amani Mocenica 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maikah Dau 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.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jone Naraba 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 Nasoni Mereke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jone Naraba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nasoni Mereke 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Nasinu are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Isikeli Tuinakauvadra and Nasinu agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nasinu can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nasinu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ashok Kumar 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 words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rewa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Waisake Navunigasau 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.
Jone Naraba 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nickel Baledrokadroka after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nasinu can pretend not to have heard.
Nasinu asked and Nadi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rusiate Krishna 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Epeli Verevou 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dave Goundar 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.
“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 Nasinu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Waisake Navunigasau was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jone Naraba 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nasinu, another week without a signature from Waisake Navunigasau.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Nasinu are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.