DAVID ISAACSON | It’s a tough gig but there’s no excuse for Broos’s temper tantrum

The behaviour of Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos after the draw against Liberia this past Friday night suggested he’s worthy of a truly South African moniker that happens to share the last three letters of his surname.

For all the money he gets paid you’d think he’d know how to control his anger enough to at least stick it out to the end of the game.

What about the poor long-suffering fans who don’t get a cent to watch the drivel the national team has been known to dish up on what appears to be a far too regular basis?

But angry fans are something else. 

My late father grumbled and moaned his way through matches, but the first truly angry fan I encountered was on the open stand alongside the Newlands B rugby field in 1982.

It was a Grand Challenge club game between Villagers and False Bay, and there on her own sat an elderly lady who seemed to be a genetic mutation of Miss Havisham, the famous Dickens character from Great Expectations, and Mary Poppins.

But instead of hiding in her mansion as an introvert, this one went outdoors to support a team wearing white jerseys.  And instead of wearing a white wedding dress she was adorned from top to bottom in black and armed with a black umbrella.

I say armed because she used her umbrella as a weapon, prodding it in the direction of any spectators sitting nearby who dared to shout for the opposition, in this case the Bay.

And when she shouted “Come on, Villagers!” it was in a fast-rising screech that even surpassed the desperation of Rose searching for the trapped Jack on the sinking Titanic.

For several fans around her she became a target of amusement. Each time she shrieked her support, someone would retaliate with “Up the Bay”.  She immediately turned to stare at the offender, hitting them with the evil eye and, if they were close enough, the tip of her Mary Poppins brolly.

But there is no excuse for a professional coach to leave his post; he’s the captain of the ship, even if it is the Titanic.

Now let me admit here that, like her, I was a Villagers supporter too and there was quite a lot riding on this match, not in terms of the league, because Maties had a healthy lead atop the log, but pride.

False Bay had won the first round match early in the season and this was to establish dominance in the southern suburbs.

I could feel her anguish.

Villagers won the match that day, though I didn’t detect much happiness from her as we left the field that afternoon.

When I got home I told my dad about the eccentric old lady, and I recall describing her as a nervous wreck. “Well,” he replied, “you’d probably also be a nervous wreck if you’d supported Villagers for as long as she has.” 

I was still a teenager then, but I too learnt to become an angry fan at times (remember the run-out of Allan Donald in the last over of the semifinal at the 1999 Cricket World Cup?).

Fortunately for me I left Cape Town in 1986, so I was unable to continue watching Villagers and therefore escaped any potential neurological damage at their hands, though the increasing number of lawless drivers in Johannesburg traffic are proving to be a good substitute.

But angry coaches storming off like spoilt children is not acceptable.

It reminds me of former heavyweight contender Jimmy Abbott, whose trainer-father James stormed out the corner mid-fight of a losing contest against Eddie Lopez in 1979. Assistant trainer Johnny Holt, a former SA bantamweight champion, manned the corner for the rest of the bout.

As for angry fans, I wonder if there are any golf enthusiasts who are upset that Ashleigh Buhai didn’t get a look-in at the SA Sports Awards at the weekend. Breaststroke ace Lara van Niekerk won sportswoman of the year and Banyana goalkeeper Andile Dlamini took sports star. 

But Buhai became the first SA golfer in 10 years to win a Major when she lifted the Women’s British Open last year, and the first woman to take a Major since 1988. She surely deserved some kind of recognition. 

Golf fans would be entitled to argue for Buhai, while others would give the case for Van Niekerk and Dlamini. 

But there is no excuse for a professional coach to leave his post; he’s the captain of the ship, even if it is the Titanic [cue Rose screaming].

Only the fans get to leave early.