MTN8: Marathon runner versus the cup specialist
THE season’s first opportunity for silverware gets underway tonight with the MTN8 quarter-finals, and several coaches will be desperate to go all the way to buy themselves time at their respective clubs. MAZOLA MOLEFE zooms in on Gavin Hunt of Bidvest Wits and his Orlando Pirates counterpart Muhsin Ertugral as the two sides face-off at Bidvest Stadium tomorrow night. The spotlight will be on both of them for different reasons over the course of the campaign.
And here is why:
HUNT
Three-time Premiership winner with decent cup record When you mention his name,
people immediately think of the historic league titles he won between 2008 and 2010 with SuperSport United. Hunt, pictured
above has not quite brought that spark to Wits, a team that has twice finished third and then as runners-up in the championship race since his arrival. The Clever Boys have also reached one cup final, but the trophy cabinet lays unfurnished despite what the coach has insisted is an improvement in the history of the club with a record number of points and then some. He is on record as saying top coaches should not be judged on winning cups. Well, he is right and wrong at the same time. Odd, but true. Hunt is right in the sense that if you can maintain consistency throughout the championship race, a marathon given the 30 league matches sandwiched in between domestic cup competitions and Fifa breaks, then you deserve all the credit for your methods and hard work in getting your team to stay focused for nearly 10 months of football even when you are blighted by injuries to key players.
But his remarks are also flawed because winning any type of silverware while in the title race also buys you an incredible amount of credibility – and Ertugral is a classic example.
Hunt might not be too bothered if Wits crash out of the MTN8 tomorrow night because his eye is on the big prize at the end of the season, but whatever record he had in domestic cup tournaments over the years is at risk and will almost be forgotten.
ERTUGRAL
Serial cup winner with no Premiership titles The former Kaizer Chiefs mentor is surely in a more pressured environment than Hunt this season.
He has received all the backing from his new management having arrived from Mpumalanga Black Aces, and Wednesday night – Pirates thumping Golden Arrows 3-1 in their Absa Premiership opener in Soweto – showed what great potential the Buccaneers have to win silverware under his watch.
Even with a less fancied side in Aces last season, Ertugral still put up a fight in two of the three cup tournaments, losing to Chiefs in the quarter-finals of the Telkom Knockout and controversially being beaten by SuperSport in the last four of the Nedbank Cup.
Very few people were surprised, after all Ertugral clinched every trophy on offer in his first spell with the Glamour Boys, with the exception of the league title.
The assumption is that with better quality players and a team that is usually expected to pick up one or two trophies during the campaign, Ertugral should feel comfortable. The downside, however, is the fact that the coach will be under immediate pressure if Wits emerge as winners tomorrow. He knows the kind of strain that comes with being in charge of a Soweto giant having twice been the Amakhosi boss, but he has been away from it for quite some time and reality will kick in should the result not go in his favour. This will be an interesting encounter – the cup specialist in Ertugral taking on an astute marathon runner in Hunt.