Usually a ball of energy and renowned as the ultimate gag master of South African football, George Dearnaley has been cut down to size by the news of Clive Barker's passing. The former Bafana Bafana coach sadly lost his battle with Lewy Body Dementia last Saturday at the age of 78, sending the nation he gave so much joy into a collective sense of grief and mourning. Not least "Big George", the former AmaZulu FC and Bafana Bafana striker who used to catch a lift in Barker's car to and from training for two straight years, after being recruited to Usuthu by the legendary mentor himself in the early '90s. In this interview with Soccer Laduma's Lunga Adam caught up with Dearnaley, who pays a glowing tribute to a coach who will be fondly remembered for his big smile and sense of affection.
Lunga Adam: Big George, sad day for South African football, it's hard to believe that we're talking about the legendary Clive Barker in the past tense, as in 'passed on'.
George Dearnaley: I updated my status on my Facebook. It was 'I love him'. I don't wanna say 'I loved him'. I still love him. You know, as much as he's been sick for a while and I'm very close to John and Gavin (his sons), so I've always known the inside, what's happening behind the scenes and everything… So, I can't say it's unexpected, but it's still terrible news. John told us Saturday morning, he said, "My father's passed away, don't tell anybody yet until we release a statement." But the whole day, I felt… I felt empty, man. Part of your life is gone because I will never be able to talk to him again, I'll never be able to say 'thank you' to him. It's gone! Even now, I'm getting emotional now and I'm on Robert Marawa's show tonight (Monday) and I'm worried… hey, I don't wanna cry on air. What I've been telling some of my old teammates is that we can be sad, but we must be really, really grateful that he was part of our lives, that we were lucky to have him.
LA: You say part of your life is gone.
GD: Ja, no, it's a massive part of our lives. Clive was a great coach, but he was a great father to a lot of players. The second father. Some players he was maybe the only father they had, but for me, he was like a second father, you know. And he's the same generation as my father, same age, they knew each other well. My father's still alive. Also, growing up with John and Gavin when we were teenage boys, and going to the house when Clive was coaching Bush Bucks in 1985. He used to bring Bush Bucks to our amateur club in Durban, Ramblers. That was the first time I saw "Professor" Ngubane, Mike Mangena and Calvin Petersen, and Clive would introduce us to the guys. Mind you, we were 15 years old. On the weekend, we would go to the stadium to watch Bush Bucks. He always made you feel special, and I have said this to other people, (that) it didn't matter who you were, if you were a little boy standing there by the tunnel or you were a player or you were a supporter or whatever, he always made you feel special. He would never walk past you. There would be a smile, there would be a wave, there would be a "kunjani, mf'ethu (how's it, brother)?" I remember seeing that look on little boys staring at him and he would turn around and say, "Ah mpintshi (mate), how are you?" Hey, big smile! Wow, the coach saw me! You know? That's how he made players feel, he made them feel special.
LA: Yeah, we hear he didn't think twice to give a kid that he saw on the side of the road while driving to the stadium for a game a lift…
GD: Neil Greig tells that story. And supporters were asking Neil if he was my son, ha, ha, ha. No, but he was like that. I always say he was a man of the people and not just a football coach. I think a guy like that who can manage people, who can get people to do their best for him, he can be the leader of any sports team where there's a bunch of players, whether it's cricket, rugby, football. I think he would have been a great politician. He was that guy, because you never wanted to disappoint him, you know. He made you feel special, but he could also tell you when you were wrong. He could tell you to your face, "Hey, you need to wake up." You always felt you never wanted to disappoint him, you wanted to always do your best for him. So, apart from being a great coach, he was a great father-figure, but he was… he is an incredible South African, an incredible human. And Lunga, I used to travel with him for two years, 1992 and 1993, because I lived in the same suburb as him and I didn't drive and I didn't have a car. I used to get a lift with him to training and back from training, and we used to talk in the car 30 minutes to training and 30 minutes after training on the way home. So, I had a lot of extra time, just me and him. Listening to him, it was like being in a university of football and of life. He'd ask me, "George, what are you doing during the day?" I'd tell him, "I'm on the beach, I'm swimming, I'm enjoying my life and then I come to training in the evening." He'd say, "No, no, no, you've got too much time, you're wasting too much time. You must go and work, you must do something to use your time." So, there was advice there. There was also football advice. He used to say football is a simple game, and the players make it difficult. So, he always tried to remind players that the game is simple. We have the ball, we keep the ball. We don't have the ball, we must fight for it. Don't come with too many clever things. Don't make it difficult, you know. And people always talk about the motivation, the motivation. The motivation was always there. It was in everything – your life, your football. Even if you had a girlfriend problem, he'd give you advice. But the sense of humour around him, the laughter, the happiness… When I look at that AmaZulu team of 1992, we never had a good season. We won the Coca Cola Cup, but in the league we didn't have a good season, but I don't remember us ever having a fight at training or having a problem amongst players because there was always laughter, happiness and joy, and that was Clive. He made it a happy family.
LA: The story goes that he 'headhunted' you for AmaZulu. Tell us about that.
GD: Ja, ja, ja. I was at college in America. I trained with AmaZulu when I was a schoolboy and then I played three games in 1990, but then I went to college in America. In December 1991, he bumped into my mother and father in the supermarket or something. He asked, "How's George doing?" They said, "No, he's doing well", blah, blah. Then he said, "Well, next year I'm gonna be coaching AmaZulu and South Africa are readmitted into FIFA and if he's interested in maybe playing for the national team and he wants to come back, I'd love to have him at AmaZulu. Let him know." My dad told me that, I think (on) 15 or 16 December, and I was back in South Africa before Christmas – by 21st, 22nd December I was back. I thought I must take this chance, I'm gonna go for it, and ja, it worked out. I played for him at AmaZulu, we won a cup, I made the national team, (became) top goalscorer. So, I owe him. He made me an international team player, there's no doubt. Him and… I'll also never forget Brummie De Leur, he helped me so much when I was younger as well. But Clive could … I don't wanna say I was a bad player, Lunga, don't write that hey, ha, ha… he could turn a bad player into an average player, an average player into a good player and a good player into an international player, and that was because he understood football but he also understood human beings. He understood footballers. We always talk about the way he used to talk to Joe Mlaba. We used to get upset with him, man. We were jealous. He would say to Joe, in front of us, "Without you, this AmaZulu team can't play. You make this team play. You're the best player in the country, the supporters pay their money to come watch you, Joe, and I need you today and you can do it." And we were thinking, "Ah, why is he giving this guy so much credit? What about us?" But he knew that Joe needed that, and Joe would just make the whole stadium come alive with one jika (turn), make one defender fall over. So, he knew how to do that and a lot of coaches don't know how to do that.
LA: He used the same motivational tricks in the national team as well, we're told.
GD: I mean, I never played in the national team for him, although in 1995, the day I got injured against (Orlando) Pirates, he asked to have a meeting with me when we were at the hotel before the game. He told me that I've been playing well and I was gonna join the national team after that Pirates game. Maybe it meant so much to me that I was so aggressive in that game that I hurt Mark Fish, I hurt Oupa Mabuza and then "Magents" (Edward Motale) kicked me and that was the end of it. But when I spoke to the guys that were in the national team, all their stories are the same as our stories at AmaZulu in 1992 and 1993. They're all the same. Same guy. Laughing with players, everyone happy. Some players he could tell them, "You, I don't think you're good enough, but I'll give you a chance." Like with me, he would say, "I don't think you can score today. I don't think you can score against this team. Their defenders are too good for you." Because you know, that would make me so angry, I would do everything to score. Then to other players he would say, "Ah, you're the best player, Joe. You can kill these guys." He just knew the buttons to push on players. I think I was misquoted once saying he wasn't a tactical genius, but that comes from the fact that in those days, no one was really focused on tactics. No one analysed tactics and came with clever formations, you know. Clive's genius was understanding the qualities of his players and getting them in the organisation that he could get the best out of them, whether it was Durban City in 1982 or Bush Bucks '85 or AmaZulu '92. He had strong goalkeeper Dave Watterson at Bush Bucks, Shadrack Biemba at AmaZulu, he had one hard central defender that could win tackles, he had one good organiser, a good leader, he had that midfielder that could make the crowd come alive – Doctor Khumalo at Bafana, Professor Ngubane at Bush Bucks, Joe Mlaba at AmaZulu. He had that one player that could lift the stadium. I wanna say he had a goalscorer, like Kevin Mudie at City, Mangena and Petersen at Bush Bucks, myself and (Owen) "Ace" Nzimande at AmaZulu. So, that was very clever to know the formula of good teams, if you know what I mean. We were fit, we were happy and we were well-organised, and I think if you have a coach or a leader of a team that can do those things, then you have a good chance of success and Bafana '96 is a perfect example.
Tributes To Clive…
All the players loved Clive
Neil Tovey – Former
Bafana Bafana captain "It's a very, very sad moment, but we must celebrate Clive's life. Obviously, condolences go to the family. My message of condolences goes to his children and grandchildren, and everybody associated with the family. My message also goes out to the soccer fraternity, we've lost a big man. He did wonderful work in his coaching career and he was a special man, not just in terms of him being a soccer coach, but he was a special person too. All the players loved Clive and he loved all the players. He was certainly a players' coach. On behalf of the Class of '96, I am sending my message of condolences to the family."
I can still see him running like an aeroplane
Gordon Igesund – Former Bafana Bafana coach
"First of all, let me just thank Soccer Laduma for giving me the opportunity to pay a tribute to Clive Barker. As everybody knows, Clive Barker is an absolute legend in football in South Africa. He was such a wonderful person. He was a great, great role model for a lot of coaches around the country over the years. He won the Africa Cup of Nations. You can just go on and on about what a great man he was and I want to take this opportunity to give our deepest condolences to his family. It must have been very, very tough for them. But I also know that Clive was going through a tough time and I read in a statement from the family that he's at peace now, and that's what pleases us of all this. It's never nice to lose anybody, but it's also not nice to suffer and be in that situation, and of course, to the millions and millions of soccer fans around the country that Clive entertained during his era. When Clive announced that he was retiring from football, already he was being missed. I used to miss him on the sidelines. I'm sure the fans used to miss him. They loved him. I will always remember him as 'The Dog' and I can still see him running like an aeroplane when Mark Williams scored the goal in the Afcon in '96 and when you see something like that, you think it's cool at the time. Now that is the thing you remember him by. Clive gave so many coaches an opportunity and he never thought highly of himself, even though he had every right to. He was such a great person in football. He loved the game, he gave everything he had to the game, and he was just so unassuming, so modest and so humble. It's really a sad loss to football in our country."
