Nedbank Cup final: Every underdog has its day and Sekhukhune coach 'Brakkies' Truter is due

Sekhukhune United owners and brothers, Simon and Jonas Malatji, had to make a tough decision when the 2022 FIFA World Cup break came in November and December, halting all global domestic leagues and competitions for at least five weeks.

Their club had played 12 matches under the guidance of former SuperSport United mentor Kaitano Tembo. However, he could only muster two wins among five losses and five draws, giving the Kempton Park-based club a win ratio of 16.67%.

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The turnaround was quick. In a matter of 11 days, the Malatji brothers announced Brandon "Brakkies" Truter as Tembo's replacement, and the former Richards Bay mentor had eight weeks to work with his new squad before domestic football resumed.

The 52-year-old had been handed the short end of the stick in his previous two jobs at Swallows and AmaZulu. He guided the Birds back to the DStv Premiership - Swallows had been absent from South Africa's top-flight for five years - by winning the National First Division.  

In Truter's first taste of the big league, Swallows finished an admirable sixth pace in the 20/21 season.

The league's top teams, Kaizer Chiefs in particular, swooped on their best players ahead of the 2021/22 season, and Truter was left to pick up the pieces with the club recruiting too many players, ultimately seeing them sack the Cape Town-born mentor less than three months into the campaign.

Five months later, Truter replaced fellow Capetonian and legendary Bafana Bafana star Benni McCarthy at AmaZulu.

Usuthu were in the trenches and fighting for survival. He rescued the KwaZulu-Natal club and secured a seventh-place finish, and the owners rightly handed