Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruce Hughes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Nasinu game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tailevu Naitasiri runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Raul Chandra is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilisoni Lolaivalu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nasinu could ask drops and the wages Dave Mocenica can ask rise.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abishek Nawalu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nasinu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dave Mocenica 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.
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.
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruce Hughes 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 18, and nobody at Nasinu signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad25 Sep 2028
5 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nasinu are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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.
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Bruce Hughes 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.
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.
“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 Javan Omondi.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Atonio Tuivuna signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Setareki Hughes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilisoni Lolaivalu 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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nasinu lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Position 8 and 16 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.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Nasinu 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nasinu is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Setareki Hughes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruce Hughes 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mason Agius 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 Meli Talevakarua 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 Nasinu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Bruce Hughes 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 Ryan Chandra 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 Nasinu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefan Payne signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Still no offer on the table, and Mohammed Shaheer’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
“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, wages agreed, and Navua waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nasinu is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nasinu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Meli Talevakarua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mason Agius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nasinu 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Navua waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nasinu is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasinu have done the hard part with Lautoka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
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 Meli Talevakarua is on 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rewa is saying, and nobody at Nasinu is enjoying the guessing.
The phone has started ringing about Abishek Nawalu again, and this time the name on the line is Navua. Nasinu are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brendan Schneider was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nasinu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brendan Schneider trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefan Payne signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 to Suva, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 16 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abishek Nawalu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nasinu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
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 0‑3 Laisenia Drudru left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Mason Agius 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Neemish Prasad is in the works
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Nadroga were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brendan Schneider was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nasinu have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nadi go through and Nasinu go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 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.
“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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mason Agius 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.
Position 8 and 12 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brendan Schneider was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The deal with Rewa 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.
Everybody at Nasinu 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.
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.
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.
“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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shivam Shandil. 2‑0 against Tailevu Naitasiri, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody at Nasinu saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Mason Agius 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 dugout29 May 2028
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.” Laisenia Drudru kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Nasinu 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.
“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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Meli Talevakarua did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nasinu and Lautoka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Lautoka left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 May 2028
Tony Nair 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nasinu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 23 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Navua were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
“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.
6 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout8 May 2028
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 0‑2 Laisenia Drudru left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad8 May 2028
Mason Agius 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Ayden Huss
4 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.
Samuela Verevou scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Nadroga, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Nair 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.
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 Meli Talevakarua is on it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Nair 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.
Marked 7.48 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nasinu had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.” Laisenia Drudru chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tony Nair’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nasinu needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mason Agius 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.
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 dugout17 Apr 2028
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.” Laisenia Drudru chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Labasa 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ryan Chandra obliged against Tailevu Naitasiri. 4‑3 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Nasinu.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Nasinu and Tailevu Naitasiri, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.57 — 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.
He is 20 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Tony Nair 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 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Meli Talevakarua has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nasinu have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Mason Agius 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rewa in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A side in position 4 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Dave Mocenica on the training pitch
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 7.30 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nasinu had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Laisenia Drudru was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nasinu dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mason Agius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Tailevu Naitasiri? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Meli Talevakarua did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.” Laisenia Drudru, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
“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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sakaraia Mocenica 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Christopher Baledrokadroka is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marlon 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mason Agius 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.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nasinu will be careful with the return date, 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 Tony Nair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Tony Nair
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Tony Nair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Laisenia Drudru has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Nasinu close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Nasinu will try again when the window opens; Lautoka may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mason Agius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohammed Shaheer has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Atonio Tuivuna's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Tony Nair 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
This is not rotation. Nirav Kumar has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nasinu is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Nair 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Mason Agius 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 Nirav Kumar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Tony Nair are not good
Position 8 and 19 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.
“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 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.
Nasinu asked and Tailevu Naitasiri said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tony Nair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dave Mocenica 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Laisenia Drudru has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Nasinu had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navua have kept their man, and Nasinu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Nair 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ayden Huss's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tony Nair was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nasinu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tony Nair 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nasinu are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Laisenia Drudru has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brendan Schneider was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Atonio Tuivuna is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nasinu is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nasinu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Maikah Dau are not good
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Nasinu had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Mason Agius 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.
Dave Mocenica is 17, and Nasinu have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Isaac Raicama 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
6 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ayden Huss's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Isaac Raicama 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ayden Huss's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Nasinu than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
In brief
The dugoutManit Lal asks for a word with the manager
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isikeli Tovilo 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.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Tony Nair’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isikeli Tovilo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jone Naraba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Still no offer on the table, and Atonio Tuivuna’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Atonio Tuivuna's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“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 Jone Naraba.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Nasinu will try again when the window opens; Ba may not be selling by then.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isikeli Tovilo 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Nasinu will try again when the window opens; Labasa may not be selling by then.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Nasinu were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
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.
Isaac Raicama 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 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Sumeet Goundar is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Nasinu 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Labasa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Nasinu ran out of time with Tailevu Naitasiri. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nasinu are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 8 and 19 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Meli Talevakarua is on it.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Nasinu can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Labasa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nasinu asked and Tailevu Naitasiri said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Waisake Navunigasau has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nasinu have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maikah Dau trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nasinu lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Labasa have accepted the money. What Nasinu do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Nasinu can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasinu have done the hard part with Navua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nasinu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 19 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Shainal Lal 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nasoni Mereke. 1‑0 against Suva, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasinu have done the hard part with Nadroga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Nasinu can pretend not to have heard.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Everybody at Nasinu saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Nasinu know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Minute 90, against Nadi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Shainal Lal 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nasinu lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 May 2027
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 1‑2 Laisenia Drudru left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rewa in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Nasinu and Lautoka, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Beaten 5 times, 3 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 May 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Laisenia Drudru to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.” Laisenia Drudru, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, 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 Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Maikah Dau has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nasinu have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Suva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutNewton Tabe knocks on the manager’s door
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Bruce Hughes scored in the 87th minute, Labasa had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Nasinu took the lot.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Lauren Bali 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.
Jonetani Buksh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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.” Laisenia Drudru kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nadroga 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.
In brief
The dugoutMaikah Dau asks for a word with the manager
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Jonetani Buksh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Chandra 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.
5 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.
“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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anushil Prasad 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.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Meli Talevakarua is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Mohammed Shaheer
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nasinu is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Raul Chandra 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rewa in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Tailevu Naitasiri had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 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.” Laisenia Drudru chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Chandra 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.
Nobody at Nasinu is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ratu Bari 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samuela Tuinakauvadra 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. Epeli Tiko 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. Nickel Bari 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Meli Talevakarua. 1‑0 against Navua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anushil Prasad 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nasoni Mereke trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nasinu opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Tushal Kumar stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nasoni Mereke reports back to Nasinu with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shivam Shandil signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Meli Talevakarua is on it.
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 34, with 83 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Market8 Feb 2027
The window shut and Anushil Prasad is still in the building
Nasinu spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
In brief
SquadTushal Kumar is put on a programme of his own
That is the business done at Nasinu 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasinu have done the hard part with Lautoka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 33 with 49 appearances behind him, and Nasinu have to plan for both answers.
Market1 Feb 2027
The window shut and Shainal Lal is still in the building
Nasinu spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasinu have done the hard part with Ba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A loan enquiry to Tailevu Naitasiri: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tailevu Naitasiri keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
In brief
SquadRaul Chandra falls out with a teammate over standards
The deal with Navua 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Labasa is saying, and nobody at Nasinu is enjoying the guessing.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shivam Shandil signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Nasinu 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.
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.
Ba 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Nasinu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Chandra 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.
Everybody at Nasinu 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.
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.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shivam Shandil signs something — a contract at Nasinu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Meli Talevakarua is on it.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Chandra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nasinu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Raul Chandra 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nasinu lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.