Landmark looms in near future for Hunt

SuperSport United coach Gavin Hunt should set a new landmark for South African football later in the season when he reaches 1 000 matches as a coach in top flight football in the country.

Hunt has already embarked on his record-extending 27th successive campaign as a coach with a South African club, having recently signed a new two-year contract at SuperSport United.

They began the season with defeat to holders Orlando Pirates in the quarterfinal of the MTN8 which was the 60-year-old coach’s 978th game in charge.

He needs 22 more games this season – in both league and cup competition – to get to 1 000 and it is predicted he will reach the landmark around February.

Hunt has not missed a Premier Soccer League season since he began with Seven Stars in the 1998/99 campaign, moving to Hellenic, Black Leopards, Moroka Swallows, SuperSport, Bidvest Wits, Kaizer Chiefs, Chippa United and SuperSport again.

Early in the 2019-20 season, when he was at Wits, Hunt broke the record for the most games by a cooch in the top flight, surpassing the record of 816 which had previously been set by Gordon Igesund.

He has since moved onto a total of 978, made up of 409 wins, 282 draws and 289 defeats.

Hunt’s first top flight club was Seven Stars, who he promoted up from the NFD with Benni McCarthy as the star player. Their opening game in the 1998-99 season was a 1-0 away win at Moroka Swallows but followed by a run of nine matches without a win.

Hunt made his name with newly promoted Black Leopards in the 2001-02 season, as they finished eighth and he was named Coach of the Year. He has since won the award four more times

His first league title came in his 10th season in charge when he moved from Moroka Swallows to SuperSport United and he set a new benchmark when he won three in a row with the club from 2008 to 2010. A fourth title came at Wits in 2017.

He has also won all three cups - the Nedbank Cup, the League Cup when it was called Telkom Knockout and the MTN8.

Hunt made his playing debut as a 17-year-old schoolboy for Hellenic in 1981, giving him now more than 40 years total service in the South African game.