Bucks lay down the foundation for future
Team looks to cement place in third tier league
One of the new teams in the ABC Motsepe League will now have a “developmental stable” for its underage players and will no longer be sending them away to other teams.
For the past four weeks Bush Bucks Academy, who recently bought EC Bees’ league status, has been preparing to play their first season in the third-tier league.
The club’s technical director and head coach, Nigel Dixon, said before they could do anything with their new team, they needed to put structures in place.
“That’s what we were busy with aligning everything and I must say our preparations have been going quite well.
“We’ve been training for four weeks now, because we bought the franchise (EC Bees’ third-tier league status) very late and we need to do due diligence,” said Dixon.
The former Imbabala goalkeeper said the whole idea of acquiring third-tier league status was to ensure their boys had a place where they can compete with the top teams in the province.
“We wanted to have a place where our academy boys can graduate to because we could see the way they did at the Engen Tournament that was in PE.
“Hence we have a big group that we took from our U17 squad, and that’s because we are trying to keep the team, U23, as possible as we can.”
Dixon said after holding trials more than a month ago they have been training, trying to get their rhythm and combinations in place before their much anticipated encounter against the die-hard Bizana Pondo Chiefs.
“We have been training for weeks now, and we had to do everything correctly, and we are feeling confident about the bunch we have in the squad.
“They are coming along nicely and we will be able to compete in the league, even though we didn’t have any players that were playing in this league.”
Dixon, who didn’t want to reveal his new squad to the Dispatch as “It’s going to put unnecessary pressure on them”, said the new club had no ambitions to compete for the league title as yet.
He said their immediate goal was to establish themselves as key players in the third-tier league.
“We have a lot of young academy boys coming through, so I want a good clean and neat transition, and now if we put them on the papers that’s unnecessary pressure.
“Because they are there on merit.”
Dixon also said they were expecting a difficult season as this was a promotional league, with clubs that have been pushing for the move to the National First Division for years.
“Our team is full of youngsters and it’s going to take them a while to settle down at this level.
“So for us this is like an outlet for our academy boys, because once they reach the U17 we start shipping them out.
“Organising trials for them out of town.
“Hence we decide to get into Motsepe League so we don’t have to do that anymore. We have something they can look forward to now.”
The ABC Motsepe League three-week fixture were released by provincial SA Football Association on Wednesday.
They are coming along nicely and we will be able to compete in the league
Bush Bucks v Pondo Chiefs (North End Stadium), Future Tigers v Birmingham City (Central Stadium, Uitenhage), Peace Makers v Swartkops Valley United Brothers (NU2 Stadium, Motherwell), Mthatha Bucks v Amavarara (Mthatha Stadium), Tornado v Highbury (Sisa Dukashe Stadium), PE Stars v Sibanye (Saints Fields, Gelvandale), The Guys v Matta Milan (Mqeshwa Sports Fields), Butterworth v Yakha United (WSU Sports Field, Butterworth)