Whatever happened between Friday morning and the evening, must have really set off Goulburn Athletic’s head coach Sardick Barends to take such drastic action.
No Bones with Jones can confirm that the passionate Barends has resigned from the club with immediate effect after two seasons in charge.
Our website was informed that the Goulburn-mentor, who would have led his side up against Vasco da Gama in the quarterfinal of the Coke Cup on Sunday in Hanover Park, became extremely irritated as he felt he was being undermined despite the fact that he had transformed the senior outfit.
This is definitely a massive blow for the Bonteheuwel based club who was well on course to repeat last season’s feat when they progressed to the final but eventually lost to the defending champion Diadora FC.
It’s actually quite sad that the two parties had to part ways in this fashion. The 31-year old Barends has not only invested a lot of time and energy in the club since he took over, but also restored the credibility and image of the club putting them on the proverbial map again with his knowledge of the game.
He gave the (up and coming) players a renewed hope and opened up doors for his players to be recruited by bigger clubs.
Don’t be surprised if Barends pops up at Junction Rovers to work alongside his former coaches, Chrissando da Weber and Enver Solomons as he has played for De Weber as a left back in previous seasons also helping them to win promotion to the ABC Motsepe League two seasons ago.
One can only imagine that the Goulburn hierarchy will be kicking themselves as they probably did not see this one coming. If not now then definitely further down the line. And as the saying goes… you only realise what you had when it’s gone!
