Kaizer
Chiefs scooped the honours at the first Player and Coach of the Quarter
announcement on Monday morning at the Premier Soccer League offices. Striker
Bernard Parker and coach Stuart Baxter were named the Absa Premiership Player
and Coach winners for Quarter 1 each winning R15 000, courtesy of Absa.
Baxter
certainly deserves the plaudits as he led an unbeaten Kaizer Chiefs to the
summit of the Absa Premiership with five wins and three draws where the team
scored 16 league goals and conceded just 4 times in the Quarter, a huge effort
and one that has firmly laid the platform for further success.
A
change of management and football philosophy has resulted in a remarkable
turnaround for Parker. The striker returned from Europe last season but could
only manage a paltry return of four Absa Premiership goals. However, this
season, Parker started in superb fashion scoring four times in the club’s first
match of the season; a 6-0 demolition of AmaZulu. He added to his tally with a
strike against Black Leopards in a 2-1 win for the Amakhosi and he also notched
a brace against Bidvest Wits in a 3-1 win at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
Absa
Sponsorship Manager, Steward Masela, was delighted to announce the quarter 1
winners. “The Absa Premiership season has gripped the entire football community
from the very first game of the season and judging from the start we can expect
this excitement, passion and determination from the teams to continue as the
season unfolds.”
While
Baxter and Parker walked away as winners there were notable mentions for both
Steve Barker and Delron Buckley who also both excelled during Quarter 1.
University
of Pretoria surpassed all expectation with their superb start to life in the
Absa Premiership and finished the Quarter in 2nd place. This is no
mean feat achieved by head coach Barker who oversaw a dramatic shuffle of
playing personnel in the winter and started the campaign with a new-look
outfit. AmaTuks recorded some superb results in the first Quarter of the season
most notably a 5-1 win away to Ajax Cape Town.
Buckley
returned to South Africa following a lengthy spell of plying his football trade
abroad in Germany, Switzerland and Cyprus. There were a few eyebrows raised
when Maritzburg United unveiled the 34 year-old but Buckley has proved there is
no substitute for experience.
Absa
also announced the awards that the financial institution will be sponsoring at
the end of the 2012/2013 campaign. The awards up for grabs will be:
Players’ Player of the Season: R150 000.00
Coach of the Season: R75 000.00
Coach of the Season: R75 000.00
Young
Player of the Season: R50 000.00
Absa-lutely Awesome Goal: R50 000.00
Absa Premiership Top Goalscorer: R25 000 (15 or less goals)
R50 000 (between 16 – 20 goals)
R75 000 (between 21 – 25 goals)
R100 000 (26 or more goals)
An additional amount of R10 000.00 will be added to the prize
money if the winning recipient per award is currently an Absa account holder.
A new element will be added to the Absa-lutely Awesome Goal of the
2012/2013 season whereby the supporters will have a say in the selection of the
goal of the season. Absa Premiership supporters will be asked to vote on the
Absa Facebook and Twitter platforms and their selections will contribute 30% to
the selection of the winning goal of the season.
