Pirates’ players united: coming season about challenging for Premiership

It has been 12 long years since Orlando Pirates players made their way to the podium to collect DStv Premiership championship medals, but there is genuine hope from players that the drought may come to an end next season.

Speaking at the launch of their jersey for 2024-25, Pirates players Thabiso Monyane, Deon Hotto and Makhehlene Makhaula shared the sentiments that a challenge for the league title is long overdue. 

In coach Jose Riveiro's two seasons in charge Pirates have enjoyed success by winning the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup competitions twice — making for four cup trophies — but the DStv Premiership monkey remains on their back. The Buccaneers finished second in the past two seasons but the points difference from seven-time successive champions Mamelodi Sundowns was more than 10 on both occasions — 16 in 2022-23 and 23 in the last campaign. 

Sundowns have been severely disrupted by the highlypublicised departure of former coach Rulani Mokwena and Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela have taken over. This seems to present an opportunity. 

Makhaula said Pirates' players have had discussions about going all-out to try to usurp the title from its almost decade-long home at Chloorkop to Parktown next season. 

“There are some of us who haven’t won the league and we do want to see ourselves having that medal of being a league champion,” he said. “We have discussed this as players in camp and we agreed we have to start well with the first five games. We need to make sure we win those first five, six or even 10 matches of the season. 

“This is because if you don’t start well, you are making things difficult for yourself. If you start the campaign slow, when it comes to around the seventh game you will realise that you are behind. 

“I don’t want to talk about other clubs, but you can see that they [Sundowns] start the season on a high note to make it difficult for other teams to catch up. If we start like that, we will give ourselves a strong chance.”

Slow starts, where lack of consistency saw Pirates lag far behind Downs in the opening half of the season, have been costly to Bucs' league challenge ambitions in Riveiro's two seasons. Hotto agreed Pirates need to challenge Sundowns strongly from the word go and win the league for their supporters and chair Irvin Khoza. 

“It is not that we want to win the league for the coach — we want to win it for ourselves, the supporters and for the chairman. Pressure is always going to be there, but it will be easier if we are competitive from the first until the last game,” the Namibian international explained.

“We don't want pressure from supporters or from the chairman, we want to put pressure on ourselves as players. We have to say from the first until the last game, we have to be on top of the log and that is the pressure on ourselves. 

Monyane said while Pirates did well in the past two editions of the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup, their downfall in the league was a result of their infamous lack of consistency. 

“One of our weaknesses of the past two seasons is starting the campaign slow and we hope things will be different this season and start on a high and collect maximum points early.

“Lack of consistency proved costly last season but we are going to rectify those mistakes. That’s why we went to preseason in Spain to correct mistakes, build team cohesion and emphasise the importance of finishing the season on a high note.

“As much as we managed to win the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup, we need to do better in the league. Over the past two seasons we finished second on the log but we want to be consistent. 

“We don’t want to dwell too much on what other teams are doing, we want to improve where we lacked last season and get even better where we were strong.”

Makhaula pleaded with fans to give them support as they look to stop Sundowns from winning a record-extending eighth league championship. 

“They must understand that it is difficult to win the league, it is not like in cup competitions where you need to win four to five games. In the league, you have to climb a mountain, sometimes you don’t play well. 

“They just have to keep on supporting us. They have to be patient, because it is not a simple thing to win the league. It is also not simple for Mamelodi Sundowns because they know they have to face teams that are prepared.”