Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tlou Nkwe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Polokwane City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kgaogelo Ramushu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rodney Maphangule scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Polokwane City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Polokwane City until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Polokwane City have done the hard part with Ascoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thabang Matuludi and Polokwane City agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Polokwane City, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Bwire is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Keagile Malepe has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sibusiso Tshabalala. 2‑0 against Free State Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Polokwane City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Jomo Cosmos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Thabelo Tshikweta. The answer from Polokwane City has not changed — yet.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Lebogang Phiri left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Monty Batlhabane is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑3 to Bloemfontein Celtic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Bwire is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lebogang Phiri after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sibusiso Tshabalala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Bwire is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 2‑1 win over Ajax Cape Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.10, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Warona Medupe and Polokwane City agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
0‑4 to Mamelodi Sundowns, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mosa Ramasobane and Polokwane City agree another 3 years.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Lebogang Phiri left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Polokwane City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Bwire is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mpho Mvundlela. 2‑1 against Bidvest Wits, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Bwire was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Polokwane City will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Polokwane City can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Malebogo Modise and Polokwane City agree another 3 years.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Polokwane City asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Polokwane City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Middlesbrough is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Polokwane City
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Morgan Erasmus is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Percy Lorch has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Out, 0‑0 to Mamelodi Sundowns, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0-8, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
17 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match26 Feb 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Polokwane City and Mamelodi Sundowns in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Monty Batlhabane was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 121 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Free State Stars spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
17 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Monty Batlhabane has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 1‑0 win over Free State Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Polokwane City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cosenza have kept their man, and Polokwane City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lebohang Nkaki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodney Maphangule is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lebogang Phiri after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSabelo Motsa is still being punished for one mistake
158 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Polokwane City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bonginkosi Dlamini. 1‑0 against Jomo Cosmos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lebohang Nkaki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Lebogang Phiri, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Elliot Seema
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Tlou Nkwe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Minute 87, against Bloemfontein Celtic, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodney Maphangule is on it.
A 3‑2 win over Orlando Pirates, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sibusiso Tshabalala had Polokwane City level again within 1 minutes, and Orlando Pirates never got to play with a lead at all.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Polokwane City, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Polokwane City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Bwire was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Monty Batlhabane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
9 combined actions and 7.11. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Nobody at Polokwane City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
8 goals in one match, Simon Ramabu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Polokwane City and Mamelodi Sundowns.
Tlou Nkwe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Brian Bwire falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Polokwane City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Lebogang Phiri left the room before anybody could ask which.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Polokwane City will not try tonight.