Hunt will be presented with a chance to deliver his first trophy to Sturrock Park on Saturday when Wits square off against Mamelodi Sundowns in the final of the MTN8 at Mbombela Stadium (17h00) – a contest that will pit last season’s league winners against the runners-up.
For a man who has thrice won the Absa Premierhsip, lifted the Absa Cup and the Nedbank Cup and standing with an unbroken run of presence in the PSL as a coach since June 2001, Hunt understands that ultimately it is trophies that count, especially at Wits, a club whose ambitions have grown since the BidVest Group bought a controlling stake a decade ago.
Is he disappointed that all he has managed to far since joining Wits in 2013 is a runners-up place in the 2014 Nedbank Cup, two third-place finishes in the league and last season’s runners-up finish – all of which have yielded no silverware?
“I will be lying if I said no, isn’t it,” responds Hunt with his trademark scratch of the head. “The most important thing for me is to pay my bond at the end of the month,” he says jokingly before explaining further.
“So, listen, I see people don’t understand … they see you sign a few players and they say ‘oh now you must win things’. We need to change the whole mentality of Wits.
“Wits has always been a battling club and we have been that type of club. We need to try and change that mentality of trying to be competing and getting closer and closer and I think for the last three seasons we got closer and we have been there until right at the death but then fell away because of various reasons. Wow, we’ve just not been good enough!
“So we are proud of that but now we need to change and we need to break through. If it doesn’t happen on Saturday, my God, we will have to try again. Yes we are disappointed [that we haven’t won any trophy]. We have a very demanding owner [Brian Joffe] like Sundowns have so they all want success like every other owner.
“But we have our own internal hunger and desire, we drive that through the players, through the technical staff and through everyone else. I think I am talking in riddles now going round and round but yes we are disappointed,” details Hunt.
Wits travel to Mbombela having last played a game last week Tuesday when they overcame Baroka, after which their much-anticipated clash with Orlando Pirates was called off due to security reasons as the student protests against fees continue.
The Clever Boys play their home games within the Wits University campus and while Hunt was not impressed with the game being called off, he believes the period of inactivity that they have had will be no excuse for Saturday.
“The postponement of Saturday’s game left a bitter taste with me because I was disappointed that we didn’t play. We are playing for a huge prize so we cannot be looking at making excuses like that and I certainly won’t be making use of that as an excuse,” he adds.
“However, preparations-wise it has been pretty much been the same, it has been a long week different to the last two to three weeks when we have had to play Tuesday/Wednesday and Saturday. No problems there.”