Richards Bay coach Ronnie Gabriel recalls supporting title-winning Manning Rangers

When the PSL began on 9 August 1996, Ronnie Gabriel was studying for a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting, playing amateur football and supporting Manning Rangers. Three decades later, the Richards Bay FC coach still remembers the club’s unexpected triumph in the inaugural 1996/97 season with particular pride.

Gabriel, who was born in Tongaat, says Rangers’ championship success made that first PSL season especially memorable. The team’s home form at Chatsworth Stadium and a squad featuring several leading players helped establish the club as a force in South African football.

“With the year 1996, I was in tertiary studying my BCom Accounting while playing amateur football,” Gabriel tells KickOff with a smile.

“Only after that did I then start doing my coaching badges.

“Chatsworth Stadium was a fortress through that 1996/97 season, and it remains a stadium that I have been to so many times as a football fan.

“It was hard to beat Rangers that season as they had George Koumantarakis, Keryn Jordan, Mark Davies, Solo Ndimande, Liswa Nduti… I watched numerous of their games back home.

“Being from KZN myself and Rangers also having been from KZN, I used to support them and my love and passion for the game grew from seeing them annex the championship unexpected.

“Rangers made us proud back home.”

Gabriel’s support for Manning Rangers came after he had followed Tongaat Crusaders, with the two clubs having been rivals during the FPL era. He watched their meetings in Tongaat, including the period when Crusaders were competing in the top division, the NSL First Division, in 1991 and 1992.

“I was a supporter of Rangers after having been an avid fan of Tongaat Crusaders.

“Manning Rangers had been our rivals back in the FPL days, so I watched those encounters in Tongaat even when Crusaders were in the top league (NSL first division in 1991& ‘92) before they fell off.

“Then Rangers continued to hold the mantle and made us proud,” says Gabriel.

The former supporter is now preparing for his first season as the sole head coach of a PSL club. His responsibility is to lead Richards Bay, having worked his way through every level of football in South Africa.

Gabriel’s coaching career began in the amateur game with Maidstone FC before he progressed through the ranks. Like fellow Tongaat-born coach Sifiso ‘Pitso’ Dladla, he takes charge of a top-flight side having gained experience across the South African football structure.

The 50-year-old never played professional football, but his connection with the game stretches back to the period when Manning Rangers were making history.

For Gabriel, the memories of Rangers’ title-winning campaign remain closely linked to his own early involvement in football: a student balancing his BCom Accounting studies with amateur football while watching a club from his home province lift the championship.

That season also provided an example of what could be achieved in KwaZulu-Natal football, a legacy he now hopes to draw on as he begins his first campaign leading Richards Bay.