The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Siyabonga Mabena did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fernando Bravo 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.
He is 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Jomo Cosmos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Free State Stars 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Williams Mkhize signs something — a contract at Free State Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Free State Stars is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Free State Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evidence Jali to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sifiso Mbidana’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Free State Stars needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Hlompho Billiat 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.
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 mark of 7.88, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Evidence Jali to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siyabonga Billiat 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 Khama Mahlangu is on it.
In brief
The dugoutFernando Bravo asks for a word with the manager
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Free State Stars 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.
Hlompho Billiat 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.
A 3‑1 win over Platinum Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 22 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Williams Mkhize was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Free State Stars will try again when the window opens; Maritzburg United may not be selling by then.
$2.7M was the most the club would pay and Black Aces were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Hlompho Billiat 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.
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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 1‑3 Evidence Jali left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thulani Mphela provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Luther Lorch could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.59
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.59, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The offer went to Black Aces this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SuperSport United have kept their man, and Free State Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is saying, and nobody at Free State Stars is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.