Demetri Catrakilis
Golden Lions coach, John Mitchell, and Western Province flyhalf Demetri Catrakilis were today named as the Currie Cup Coach and Player of the Month for August.
The Currie Cup Coach of the Month competition is designed to acknowledge and reward coaches for their outstanding leadership. Players, who are consistent and significantly contribute to the overall performance of the team, come into the reckoning for the Player of the Month award.
A media panel, consisting of respected journalists and commentators, were unanimous in their choice of the Golden Lions coach for the month of August.
Mitchell has moulded the Golden Lions into a winning-team that has performed admirably both on attack and defence and the statistical records of the current Currie Cup log leads are also extremely impressive.
In August, the Lions secured good wins over arch-rivals the Blue Bulls and Free State Cheetahs, and only narrowly suffered their first defeat of the season recently against Western Province. Their current form clearly indicates that the Lions are the form team of the tournament, showing commendable flair on attack and resoluteness on defence.
Demetri Catrakilis received the majority of the votes for his stand-out performances during the second month of the Currie Cup action. The unerring boot of the young flyhalf saw Western Province claim a thrilling 28-26 victory over the Golden Lions to end their unbeaten streak at Newlands on Friday, 19 August.
Overall sentiment for Catrakilis has been his fantastic contribution as flyhalf. The Varsity Cup product from UCT kicked a perfect seven from seven off the tee and slotted a drop goal in a match-winning 23-point haul to hand the Johannesburg side their first loss of their Currie Cup campaign and end the host’s two-match losing streak.
Players Josh Strauss (Golden Lions loose forward and captain) and Marcel Coetzee (Sharks loose forward), as well as Naka Drotske and Leon Boshoff, coaches of the Free State Cheetahs and Platinum Leopards respectively, were also nominated for their fantastic performances in August.
I like this Catrakilis Greek!
Province should have started to employ him in Super Rugby already!
Just goes to show how close players are in skill and temperement. Catrakilis is about the 4th choice at WP. Yet he has taken his chance with both hands and right boot.Surely he has jumped the queue and even Grant would struggle to unseat him.
That is exactly what has happened at the Lions. The Lions brains trust bought guys like Alwyn, Maku, Rhodes, Whitely, Strauss, and Cilliers to name a few, who could not get a regular starting place in their old provinces, are starting to show their worth, and are being recognised.
Lion4ever wrote:
when things are going your way you must put foot on the pedal, this player is one of the new generation of New SA kingpins. Hope the WP/Stormers coaching staff realise what they have there. It realy excites me we have the great Morne , the stable Catrakilis, the Spencer clone Jantjies and Ebersonn. Our variety at 10 is the best in the world. Just hope we(coaches) have the guts and vision to use each one to his best ability.
PS with the young Bulls 10 we have another type of 10, great things to come
And to think that this youngster was in the Lions U19 squad WITH Jantjies. Went to St Johns in JHB and his parents are still here. He visits “home” regularly.
Another one the Lions let out of the bag.
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