DStv Premiership: Breaking Down the PSL Monthly Awards

The  announced the (belated) monthly award winners for the 2022/23 season. Followers of the local game have been made to wait for a while, but finally, these were announced on Thursday morning.

Thanks to the mid-season World Cup, there’s an unusual split on these – August, Sept/Oct and then December/January but it’s nothing new. Looking at these from a statistical standpoint, the first thing that obviously stands out is that three keepers have won the monthly Player Awards, with Melusi Buthelezi, Salim Magoola & Ronwen Williams following each other. Including Hugo Marques last season, this means goalkeepers have won each of the last four awards.

The last time more than two keepers won consecutive awards was in October 2017 (Denis Onyango & Moeneeb Josephs at the end of the 2016/17 season, Khune at the start of the 2017/18 campaign).

1 – Since the awards were established this is the first time three keepers win the Player of the Month award in the same season.

We may need to stretch our memories a bit because some of the periods under review happened quite a while ago. Back in August, TS Galaxy were a solid defensive unit, keeping clean sheets in each of the five games they played that month.

5 – Buthelezi became only the third keeper in PSL top-flight history to keep a clean sheet in each of his team’s five season-opening games (after Moeneeb Josephs for Pirates in 2009 & Wayne Roberts for Wits in 2003).

Between September and October, Salim Magoola was equally impressive, helping Richards Bay to six clean sheets in eight games. At the end of October, the Rich Boyz had conceded just six goals, with half coming in a crazy 3-3 draw with Chippa on the 30th of October.

9 – Magoola had kept nine clean sheets by then, the joint-most by a keeper 12 games into a season in PSL history (03/04 Wayne Roberts & 20/21 Denis Onyango also 9). 

Currently, on 11 clean sheets, recent defensive frailties mean he has to wait a bit longer to equal the PSL record. Only Abram Khwenenyane (12 for Ria Stars in 2000/01) has kept more clean sheets for a newly promoted PSL side in a season. Fortunately, he has eight opportunities left to get there.

The final Player award went to Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, for the December- January period. Like Magoola before him, Williams helped Sundowns to six clean sheets in the eight games played in that period. Part of this included the tail end of a seven consecutive clean sheets run, a first for him in his top-flight career.

9 – In PSL history, only Wayne Roberts (9 in 2003/4) has gone on a longer run of consecutive shutouts.

Spanish coach Jose Riveiro won the first Coach of the Month award in his first month in charge of Orlando Pirates. Remember, Orlando Pirates were top of the table at the end of August, with one loss in their opening six games of the season (P6 W3 D2 L1). It took them 10 games and a wait until 2023 to get their next 3 wins.

2020 – This is the first time a Pirates coach wins the award since Josef Zinnbauer in January 2020.

SuperSport’s run of 16 points from 21 between September and October helped Gavin Hunt to the second Monthly award. Part of this run included a 2-1 win over Sundowns, and that may explain the reason Sundowns coach(es) didn’t take this one despite collecting more points. The change in coaching arrangements during this period may also be a factor.

2018 – This is coach Hunt’s first monthly award since February 2018 at Wits.

If the second monthly award is up for debate, there is no question as to who has been awarded the December-January one. Rulani Mokwena has led Sundowns on a multiple-record-breaking run that has effectively secured them another title.

One stat won’t be enough to summarise his effort, so we’ve listed a few that cover this time period:

• Sundowns won every single game they played in December/January (8/8)
• Mokwena became the first coach in PSL history to win their first 10 league games in charge of a top-flight club (2 in October, a run that ended after 11 games in February).
• Downs became the fastest team ever to reach 50 points in a PSL season (in 20 games)
• They set a new PSL record of 12 consecutive league wins
• Downs won 2-0 v Sekhukhune, the 15th different team they beat this season. This equalled a PSL record of beating every opponent at least once in a season (also Chiefs 13/14 & 14/15)
• They won all seven matches in all competitions in January, the most wins by a team in a single month in PSL history

Hope we don’t wait too long for the next set of awards