TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – TRIUMPHANT Bidvest Wits coach, Gavin Hunt, hopes winning the MTN 8 is a good sign of greater things to come for his side.
Hunt this past weekend won his first trophy with the Johannesburg team since joining in 2013. In the process, by beating Mamelodi Sundowns (3-0) in the MTN 8 final played at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga, Wits have ended a six-year trophy drought.
It was The Clever Boys’ side’s first Top Eight trophy since 1995, a third overall following their other victory in 1984.
While successes have been few and far between for Wits, for the coach, league and Cup successes have been commonplace.
He guided unfashionable Supersport United to three successive league titles between 2007 and 2010.
Earlier, he guided Moroka Swallows to the Absa Cup (the country’s premier cup competition now known as the Nedbank Cup), in 2004.
“I have won trophies before and some of these guys have not won,” Hunt pointed out after Wits proved too good for the defending league champions.
He is hopeful this success, which was rewarded with a glittering trophy and R8 million, can be a launch pad to more glory.
“It is a great occasion for the club. It is a start,” said the Cape Town-born mentor.
With the MTN 8 trophy now in the cabinet in Milpark, Wits would now be fancying their chances in the league, with their campaign having resumed solidly, the Telkom Knockout, which launches later this week, and the season-ending Nedbank Cup.
There is also the 2007 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League, which Wits will contest in by virtue of finishing behind Sundowns, in the 2005/06 season.
– Guardian
