BETWAY PREMIERSHIP LAUNCH | Gavin Hunt fired up for fresh start with Durban City after SuperSport exit

It would be stretching it to say he was like a kid in a sweet shop, but Gavin Hunt has certainly got his mojo back following an uncharacteristic enforced break from the game after being sacked by SuperSport United midway through last season.

At the launch of the 2025/26 Betway Premiership season in Sandton on Tuesday, the multiple championship-winning coach’s excitement at returning to the coalface of the game he lives for was palpable.

“It’s good,” he said, his pearly whites confirming his mood.

“Anytime you go to a new team, it gives you a new lease of life. You fall in love with the game again.”

Hunt has found his football rebirth at newly-promoted Durban City, having been sent out to pasture by SuperSport. So it’s understandable that his passion for the game has been rekindled.

“Sometimes you fall out of love with the game when things happen like it happened,” he told the media contingent. “But it is what it is. We could have made the top eight if I had stayed, but …”

That chapter now closed, the man who led SuperSport to three successive league titles faces a new challenge — guiding the top-flight newcomers to safety and avoiding the fate of so many rookies: a swift return to the lower division.

He is embracing the task with characteristic energy.

“It’s a situation where you can really build something, go forward and try to build a team. Obviously you need a little bit of time, but in football sometimes there’s no time.”

Hunt believes he has a decent squad at his disposal — one he hopes to mould into a competitive outfit.

“There are a few young players; good players and proper players of a proper age. There’s not too many old players, so we can build there.”

Inevitably, he was quizzed about working with Ernst Middendorp, the club’s technical director. Given both men’s reputations for being strong-headed, many expect fireworks.

“It’s different obviously, you know — but, ja — we are working well together. There’s no problems. You can’t say two bulls in a kraal. I’ve got to make a decision and obviously that decision falls on me. It is what it is. It’s nothing unusual.”

He dismissed suggestions that he should be watching his back given there’s another coach in the mix:

“People who walk like that on the wall don’t trust in their own abilities.”

For now, survival is Durban City’s clear goal — but with a coach as experienced and accomplished as Hunt at the helm, they surely can afford to dream a little bigger.

So what does Hunt believe would be realistic aspirations for the newcomers?

“The league is very competitive. Anybody can beat anybody. But there are obviously one or two teams that are better. That’s going to be the challenge.”

And his own personal challenge? Could it be that Hunt is still looking to prove to SuperSport United — gone from his life though they may be — that they were premature in firing him? That, had he stayed, they might indeed have cracked the top eight?

Time — and the log — will tell.