From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilaisa Vulimainavuso 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“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 Lautoka, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Saula Waqa in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Lautoka the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Saula Waqa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilaisa Vulimainavuso 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Atonio Tuivuna damages knee ligaments — 76 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 128% of everything Lautoka earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
Saula Waqa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
-
Squad
The manager comes out for Aporosa Yada
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ilaisa Vulimainavuso 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Anand 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Shiva Pillay hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Saula Waqa in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Atonio Tuivuna
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lautoka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2026
$20.0K — a new record at Lautoka
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Market31 Aug 2026
Saula Waqa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $3.0K sale of Epeli Vunibola
He is going to Labasa, the club has $3.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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 terraces31 Aug 2026
Lautoka spend $20.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $20.0K for Ilaisa Vulimainavuso, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Lautoka out
Out, 0‑1 to Tailevu Naitasiri, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Edward Justin hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Sairusi Nalaubu
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
At 20 years old, Mosese Naba became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nadroga are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Lautoka will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Aporosa Yada talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lautoka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Saula Waqa has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Saula Waqa keeps the shirt for now, at Lautoka's convenience rather than his own.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Mosese Naba arrives from Ba with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Edward Justin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sairusi Nalaubu 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Navneel Nand has come up in conversations Lautoka were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Lautoka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Anand 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Epeli Vunibola has his answer from Lautoka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Saula Waqa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lautoka can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
108 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sairusi Nalaubu and Lautoka agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lautoka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Delon Shankar has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lautoka have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.