Richards Bay Proving Hard Work Pays Off

Richards Bay have arguably been the surprise package of the 2022/2023 DStv Premiership season and after playing 13 games so far, the newly-promoted team have found themselves only second to log leaders and defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns.

It is something no pundit could have predicted as Jomo Biyela’s club have surprised all and sundry with their solid performances throughout the campaign so far.

It has been a long road for Biyela to get into the top flight. It is also one that perhaps could have been shorter, if not for the strange landscape of South African football.

Five years ago he was the CEO of Thanda Royal Zulu, when the now-defunct club won the National First Division in the 2016/2017 season, and looked set for a return to the top tiers of South African football.

But AmaZulu had other ideas. The Durban giants were not happy being in the second tier, and having missed out on promotion, finishing in fifth place, opted to go the franchise-route, and made an offer to buy Thanda’s newly-acquired top-flight status.

The deal went through between the Thanda Group’s Pierre Delvaux and the Sokhela family, the then-owners of Usuthu, and instead of going up, Thanda was dissolved.

However, part of the deal saw Biyela become the owner of a new NFD franchise, and Richards Bay Football Club came into being.

It was a tough situation for the former Thanda players, who had worked hard on winning their chance in the big league, and while many of them went on to greener pastures, players like current Richards Bay captain, Katlego Maphathe, continued to slog it out with Biyela’s club. Another current player who was part of that Thanda team was Michael Gumede, but Gumede went on to join Golden Arrows and play in the Premiership, and only returned to the Natal Rich Boyz at the start of this campaign. 

It was a tough five seasons for the club that followed, After the transition from Thanda, they struggled in their first three campaigns to reach those same heights, finishing 12th in their first season, seventh in 2018/2019, and then 12th again the following season.

But in 2020/2021 they began to find their feet again and came narrowly close to promotion as they finished third, after leading the race for much of the season under coach Simo Dladla. That slip from the top saw Dladla lose his job, and Alan Freese briefly replaced him, but Freese was unable to manoeuvre the play-offs. 

It was bringing in Pitso Dladla and assistant Ronnie Gabriel last year that proved Biyela’s first masterstroke.  The pair had worked together for many years at Uthongathi, and that stability was just what the team needed, and by the end of 2021/2022, they were second-tier champions and promoted.

Biyela, however, knew that while they had rich experience in KwaZulu-Natal, having helped Uthongathi climb from the amateur ranks, Dladla and Gabriel had never coached in the Premiership, and the club needed to bring in someone with that experience. But he also knew he had to bring someone in that wasn’t going to upset the apple cart, and he pulled off another masterstroke as he found the ideal candidate in Vasili Manousakis.

Benni McCarthy’s amiable former assistant at Cape Town City and AmaZulu was now sitting at home in Cape Town after his contract at Usuthu was not renewed at the end of last season. He was Biyela’s first choice, having witnessed his influence and role in Durban, and so Manousakis was recruited to shore up the technical team. But this was also going to be a big test for ‘Coach B’, as this was the first time he was going to work with coaches he wasn’t familiar with…

“When I arrived that was also my biggest concern,” Manousakis told iDiski Times. 

“You’re arriving alone, and you’re walking into a team that’s been assembled, that’s had success in the NFD, all of them have been together and here I arrived. How are they gonna receive me? Are they gonna think, ‘well, yeah, he’s got PSL experience, he’s gonna come and tell us what to do, but has he won a league championship?’ 

“These are all the things that were going through my mind. And so I had to also tread carefully because it’s not my character to walk in and start shouting instructions, and you will do this and you will do that. 

“So big credit goes to the guys that were here, Pitso Dladla and Ronnie Gabriel and Vusi, the goalkeeper coach and all of them, who actually made me feel really welcome. ‘Okay, Coach, this is what we used to do, what do you want to do? Let’s try and see how we can merge everything together.’ 

“And so far, it’s worked. I was also one of those that had their doubts about this co-coaching thing and senior coaches, and this coach and that coach. But to be fair, it’s worked, and I think it’s because there are no egos and the personalities allow everybody to get along.

“And again, let’s be honest, it’s also because we’ve been fairly successful up to now in terms of results, but there’s no success yet, we haven’t won anything. We may be second on the log, but we still have a way to go to secure the status, which is the first goal.”

“We’ve seen the hard work, we’ve seen the attitude every single day in training,” Manousakis said. 

“But every time we approach a game, there’s this never-die-attitude, this never-give-up kind of approach. And I think if we’re honest, in some of the games, we have grinded a result here and there, rather than playing fantastic football from minute one to minute 90. 

“We’ve had some of those matches too by the way, and we’ve come out sometimes with nothing or a draw, I thought we were really excellent against Maritzburg, and we had nothing to show for it, missed some unbelievable chances. And then a game like Cape Town City, where I think to be fair, they had the best chances, they played some incredible football, and on the day we stole it at the death. 

“I mean, are we surprised to be as high as second? Maybe a little bit, but this league and this log is really tight, so the log also gives you a false sense of security, and you can become a little bit complacent. 

“But we’re very happy with the position that we’re in, very happy with the mentality so far, very happy with the attitude of the players. And long may it continue.”

The club have conceded just three goals in those 12 matches, with Ugandan goalkeeper Jamal Salim Magoola in sublime form, keeping nine clean sheets. Two of the goals he’s conceded have also come from the penalty spot.

“I mean, what a story, three goals conceded, two of those penalties, one against Chiefs, one against SuperSport,” Manousakis enthused about Magoola. 

“So if you take that into consideration, he’s been unbelievable. But the defending as you know, Rob, starts from the front, the striker is the first defender when we don’t have possession, and that discipline and that structure throughout the team carries all the way through. 

“But he has been the difference for us on many occasions, keeping us in the game, whether it be drawing or allowing us to win a game, and he’s been the difference with those nine clean sheets.

“This guy is special and not surprising that coach Micho (Ugandan national coach Milutin Sredojević) has called me on more than one occasion to say he’s super proud of Salim, and he is keeping an eye on him.” 

This article was brought to you by DStv and first appeared in Edition 77 of iDiski Times.

In this edition of iDiski Times, we talk to former Cape Town City striker Fagrie Lakay about his first season in Egypt and finishing above record champions Al Ahly. We also spoke to CAF Secretary General Veron Mosengo-Omba about the African Super League and Patrice Motsepe, while Dylan Kerr opened up on his Swallows exit and the financial troubles at the club. We also spoke to former Banyana Banyana player Nthabeleng Dunga Modiko, who turned into a coach and won three cup finals with UJ. There is also a feature on the Surprise Standout Players in the DStv Premiership this season so far and the usual rumours section, where we heard that AmaZulu could chase a Mamelodi Sundowns coach. Read the full edition of iDiski Times below: