Akeimi Ralulu 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Labasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sitiveni Rakai 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.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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 Timoci Naitini is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Navoce asks for a word with the manager
Simione Ragoneturaga 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Akeimi Ralulu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sitiveni Rakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iliesa Lino 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Labasa 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.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJoji Vuakaca knocks on the manager's door
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sitiveni Rakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Labasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Simione Ragoneturaga 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 Ilaisa Vulimainavuso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutTimoci Naitini has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Labasa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sitiveni Rakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Simione Ragoneturaga 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Netani Suluka
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Labasa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Netani Suluka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Labasa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Navoce was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
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 Netani Suluka is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Labasa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Labasa, 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.
Simione Ragoneturaga 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Labasa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
MarketThe clock does Netani Suluka’s negotiating for him
6Edition
The Labasa Post
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Labasa close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 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 deal with Nadi 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. Lautoka have kept their man, and Labasa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Labasa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sitiveni Rakai 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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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 dugoutJoji Vuakaca asks for a word with the manager
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Labasa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Joji Vuakaca knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Epeli Sauturaga to a room that had heard them before.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Joji Vuakaca'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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nemani Dolodai obliged against Navua. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Labasa.
Match19 Aug 2026
Nemani Dolodai wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Nemani Dolodai found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Navua went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The deal with Ba 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Suva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Labasa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Simione Ragoneturaga 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The name of Netani Suluka has come up in conversations Labasa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Osea Tuisese 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Setareki Matai 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. Kolinio Drudru 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.
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 Labasa would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutNetani Suluka knocks on the manager's door
SquadThe training reports on Sitiveni Rakai are not good
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sitiveni Rakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ashnil Raju 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.
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Labasa 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Labasa has been clear about where Luke Savu stands, which is more than many ever get.