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Grobler, Tinkler take winning records into clash with Chiefs

football15 September 2025 09:11| © Mzansi Football
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Bradley Grobler ©

Undefeated Kaizer Chiefs and Sekhukhune United meet in the Betway Premiership on Tuesday, trying to wrestle top place away from Mamelodi Sundowns, who went to the helm of the Betway Premiership after Sunday’s 3-0 home win over Magesi.

Sundowns are now on 14 points from six games with Chiefs and Sekhukhune one point behind but having played one game less.

Chiefs are the only club yet to concede a goal with five successive clean sheets from the start of the season setting a new record for the club in their more than a half century history.

But licking his lips ahead of trip to Soccer City will be veteran striker Bradley Grobler, who has long had a habit of finding the back of Chiefs’ net.

 

The 37-year-old, who moved to Sekhukhune from SuperSport United at the start of the season, has scored four goals this season already – two in the league and two in the MTN8 – which has taken his career tally to 121.

Grobler, who made his debut for Platinum Sars in November 2007, is now in his 19th season of league football in the country and in that time has scored 10 goals against Chiefs.

His first came with a stoppage time equaliser for Stars in a 2-2 draw in 2008 and he will be keen to add to his tally at Soccer City some 17 years on.

In the 2018/19 season, Grobler scored three times for SuperSport against Chiefs as he almost single-handedly eliminated them from the MTN8.

For Sekhukhune coach Eric Tinkler, Chiefs is also an attractive proposition as he has an impressive record in the dugout against AmaKhosi.

He has lost only four of 26 games against Chiefs as coach, with 12 wins and 10 draws.

The 55-year-old Tinkler’s first encounter against Chiefs was a derby encounter in his first game after taking over as a caretaker coach at Pirates from Vladimir Vermezovic, thrown straight into the deep end in December 2014.

It was a 2-0 defeat and the first of six derbies he coached with Pirates, never losing again, with two victories and three draws, including the 2015 Telkom Knockout semifinal, where Chiefs advanced 6-5 on post-match penalties after a goalless stalemate.

Tinkler moved from Pirates to become the coach of the new Cape Town City in 2016 and his second match in charge was against Chiefs, which saw the Australian Matthew Sim score after seven minutes to give the new club a famous win in their MTN8 quarterfinal.

The next season he switched to SuperSport and played Chiefs in two of his first three matches in charge. Jeremy Brockie scored early away against Chiefs in Tinkler’s first game in charge in the MTN8 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban and Bradley Grobler, who now plays for him at Sekhukhune United scored the winner in 2-1 away win over Chiefs in the second league game of the season.

 

 

Chiefs were runaway league leaders in early 2020, before the Covid-19 crisis broke, but a 2-1 win in charge of Maritzburg at Soccer City saw Tinkler contributed to Chiefs’ bubble bursting as they went onto be pipped to the title on the last day of the season.

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