Banyana Banyana coach gives Super League review as season draws to close

desiree-ellis-26-november-2023

The national team mentor has been vocal about the need to see the top division of women’s football in SA make strides, and while there’s plenty of work still to be done the progress so far cannot be ignored.

Ellis has been keeping close tabs.

“You look at Richmond [Ladies] one minute fighting relegation, the next minute right up there. You look at TS Galaxy coming in. You look at TUKS [The University of Pretoria] coming in, they haven’t felt or looked out of place in any way. I think especially the university teams they have a lot of resources and it shows with the resources that they have but it also shows with the other teams that don’t have the resources. Like Richmond, like JVW that’s fighting up there to get the best position they can get,” Ellis said.

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The SABC has exclusive rights to televise the Super League and this has been of significant aid to Ellis.

“It’s improving every year but I also think it can get better. Being able to see games on TV on a more regular basis because you can’t have eyes everywhere and the people that you work with don’t have eyes everywhere,” Ellisa added.

“It actually helps to be able to watch a game yesterday and then watch a game later today possibly and then watch a couple of games over the weekend. Even though you might be at one game and be able to watch another game over the weekend and that really helps but I think we need to have more games covered.

“Whether it’s live streaming or not, for us to be able to get footage because sometimes you are not able to watch any games.”

With Banyana the current African champions and the only national football team to make it out of the group stages at a FIFA World Cup, the coach says their stories need to be told even further.

“All of us can do better. I think the media can also cover more stories. I think storytelling is very important. When people see me, they say ‘Ow you are so short’ or ‘Ow, where do you come from’ or they think that’s who I am. That’s not who I am but I come from a background that’s similar to everyone that sits here.”