In the wake of a successful Varsity Football Tournament, University of Johannesburg(UJ) coach Bradley Carnell cautioned against overloading student footballers after the first-time finalists failed to qualify for next year’s tournament.
Despite the promising debut, UJ will not be returning for the 2015 edition as they did not finish in the top three of the University Sport South Africa (USSA) Gauteng league.
Carnell said the format needed to be looked at, as all the teams who did well in varsity football had had an uphill battle in the concurrent USSA championships.
He added that playing back-to-back fixtures for the two competitions on Monday and Tuesday nights had taken their toll on his men. “If you look at the top four teams in this year’s varsity football, NWU-Mafikeng and UJ have not qualified, and the winners Tuks only succeeded by virtue of a third and fourth place play-off, which they won on penalties.”
Although the newcomers missed a fairy-tale ending with a 1–0 loss to defending champions Tuks, captain Grant Bruchhausen did UJ proud by scooping the Player of the Series title.
On another positive note, Carnell said he had not been surprised at his students’ varsity football success, as he knew the capabilities of his men.
The former Bafana Bafana defender said Bruchhausen’s award was well deserved as he did a sterling job in defence. “But I don’t really think it was only certain individuals that shone; it was a collective effort that was able to keep us going…”
Carnell said the huge turnout by UJ fans had also played a critical role in their campaign. “I never for one second thought that we would get the support we did, as we were going into the unknown and so were the fans…” he said. “Having a full home stadium was awesome. It would have been perfect – except for the outcome of the match.”
According to Carnell, the success of their campaign would hopefully translate into building a more sustainable structure for the future.
He said they had already seen a steady increase in the quality of the footballers UJ could attract and the existing players had also developed “very nicely”.
Their aim for now is simply to do the best they could and build up slowly to where they want to be.“I want to work at the best possible level at all times. Where I am in my career at the moment, this is the best level currently, but I’m hungry for more and hopefully UJ is also slowly developing this hunger to see where we can go.”
With UJ already active in the SAB League, which overlapped the Varsity Football Tournament by a week, Carnell said his players had earned a break. “The pressure of studies and sport should not be underestimated. I’ve seen what the students go through and I really respect their efforts in accommodating both. But we love what we do and I know they will pull through as they love playing football.”
