The 2024 Kovsies Liga final between Bethlehem Voortrekker and Welkom Gim will be a tie-breaker of sorts.
The two best schools in the Griffons region have met on two occasions during this season and each has one win under the belt.
Sat.27Apr: Voortrekker (Beth) 24-26 Welkom Gim 26,
Sat.03Aug: Welkom Gim 28-36 Voortrekker (Beth) (Griffons Liga Final)
Due to the priority list, two Griffons schools were able to complete in the semifinals in 2024.
Back in 2019, under similar circumstances Gim drew 22-all with their Welkom neighbours Goudveld in the Griffons Liga Final and went on to defeat them 62-7 a few weeks later in the Kovsies Final.
Gim is coached by one of the best in the business in the form of Roean Bezuidenhout, while a couple of years into the job Trekkers up-and-coming head coach Justin Taylor is still the youngest Tier-1 head coach in South Africa.
Kovsies Playoffs 2013-2024
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 23 Aug 2013 | 30 Aug 2013 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 38 | |||
| Voortrekker (Beth) | 23 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 17 | |||
| Louis Botha | 15 | |||
| Louis Botha | 29 | |||
| Hentie Cilliers | 21 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 23 Aug 2014 | 30 Aug 2014 | |||
| Diamantveld | 21 | |||
| Louis Botha | 37 | |||
| Louis Botha | 21 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 22 | |||
| Voortrekker (Beth) | 15 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 22 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 22 Aug 2015 | 29 Aug 2015 | |||
| Diamantveld | 45 | |||
| Sentraal | 18 | |||
| Diamantveld | 16 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 18 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 66 | |||
| Jim Fouche | 19 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 23 Aug 2016 | 27 Aug 2016 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 19 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 37 | |||
| Grey College | 43 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 42 | |||
| Grey College | 92 | |||
| Voortrekker (Beth) | 17 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 26 Aug 2017 | 01 Sep 2017 | |||
| Grey College | 92 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 7 | |||
| Diamantveld | 39 | |||
| Noord-Kaap | 48 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 18 Aug 2018 | 25 Aug 2018 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 61 | |||
| Louis Botha | 0 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 61 | |||
| Duineveld | 7 | |||
| Duineveld | 39 | |||
| Sentraal | 35 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 16 Aug 2019 | 24 Aug 2019 | |||
| Duineveld | 15 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 44 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 62 | |||
| Goudveld | 7 | |||
| Sentraal | 28 | |||
| Goudveld | 59 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 20 Aug 2022 | 27 Aug 2022 | |||
| Trio | 21 | |||
| Diamantveld | 17 | |||
| Trio | 21 | |||
| Jim Fouche | 19 | |||
| Jim Fouche | 38 | |||
| Upington | 17 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 19 Aug 2023 | 26 Aug 2023 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 66 | |||
| Jim Fouche | 5 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 52 | |||
| Upington | 19 | |||
| Upington | 53 | |||
| Fichardtpark | 19 | |||
| Kovsies Semifinal | Kovsies Final | |||
| 17 Aug 2024 | 24 Aug 2024 | |||
| Voortrekker (Beth) | 24 | |||
| Landboudal | 22 | |||
| Voortrekker (Beth) | 27 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 19 | |||
| Duineveld | 21 | |||
| Welkom Gim | 44 |
@Raps (Comment #7)
Thank you for the insight Raps.
I enjoyed reading your comment.
FS has amazing talent which extends to having top SBR coaches.
I think Corne Erasmus is the JF head coach
@Raps (Comment #7)
Thanks for the post! Lekker om te hoor wat die FS skole doen.
Landboudal are very competitive. Small school compared to Louis Botha, Sentraal, JF and Fichardtpark so they therefore can’t field as many teams as the others expect Louis Botha who are now falling behind because the boys enroll at the school for soccer and that’s paying dividends because they’re the 1st ranked soccer school in the country and the situation at Louis Botha will only get worse because of the curriculum/subject changes and funds have dried up since a massive scandal hit the school in 2017, they’ve lost key sponsors and it’s not looking good. Fichardtpark however are on the up because they’ve recently got a brand new hostel but it’s only housing 10 scholars for now. They seem to be quite diverse as well. Sentraal seem to be in terrible strife but I don’t think it’s a crisis YET because they’ve done positive stuff recently like a new state of the art Astro hockey field and recently upgraded their mainstand plus they’re located in a very wealthy area. JF are ahead of everyone because they basically have everything including the best school boy coach in the province.
@Kaya 85 (Comment #5)
The game was played in a strong wind. Voortrekker played with the wind in the first half and was 12-10 in the lead at halftime.
Gim eventually won 27-19. As expected, it was a hard game. Gim did surprisingly well against the big pack of Voortrekker, especially in the scrums, where the latter had the SA School’s tighthead prop in the front row.
For Voortrekker their outside centre, Fourie, had an excellent game. Jones, the eight-man of Gim was their standout player amongst the forwards.
However, the star of the day was definitely Renaldo Kiewiet, the flyhalf of Gim. He had a Manie Libbok kind of game – breaking the line at will with outstanding ball distribution in the strong wind. (His placekicking is just much better than that of Libbok!)
Remember his name – you will hear about Kiewiet in future…
@Herakles (Comment #4)
How was the game?
It is going to be a tough game.
Voortrekker has its best team in many years, and Gim — whilst still a very well-coached team — does not have the blistering pace on the outside we got used to.
Limiting errors (and bounce of the ball)
will determine the winner.
@Kaya 85 (Comment #2)
Yes a very good showing by Landboudal in 2024. They outdid JF and Fichies to be the FS Liga champions.
Diamandveld are offering a agricultural schooling package, which may erode a bit of the attraction of Landboudal.
@beet (Comment #1)
Not surprised at all.
Am pleasantly surprised at Landboudal’s strong showing in the semi. Would love to see them become an Oakdale of the Freestate.
Apparently the 2016 Shimla final which Grey College won 43-42, still gets discussed in parts of Welkom to this day