Former Banyana captain says a lot still needs to be done to unseat Sundowns Ladies

The Brazilians have been dominating the scene since the inception of the campaign, with five successive league titles to their name.

The former Banyana Banyana captain and defender says, however, some teams have made inroads in recent times, the likes of UWC, TS Galaxy Queens and UJ Ladies, who all finished in the top four behind the league champions in 2024.

"The biggest thing that we need to talk about and mention is that Sundowns has a lot of resources [and] more support. I mean, their players get paid a salary every month. So, they get the opportunity to scout and bring in the best players they want from anywhere,” Dludlu said.

“They've got internationals from Lesotho from Botswana that have come through to play for them and they've got the best players that form part of the senior national team so they are bound to dominate.

“However, there's been consistent competition between the top four, where we saw UJ, UWC and also TS Galaxy come through to give more competition to Mamelodi Sundowns.

“There's still a lot of things that teams need to have in place to be able to compete fully, where you find the whole league is able to compete with Mamelodi Sundowns, I think once certain things are in place.

“They keep opening the gap because this is the team that also has gone to the Champions League numerous times, they were also part of a competition that took place in the US. So, they keep going an extra level higher, however that does open room for more teams to compete with them."

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With the league entering its sixth year, the former Banyana captain says a lot still needs to be done to better the product. But she admits there have been some improvements.

"I did see quite a number of improvements in 2024 in the league. I think gone are those days where we saw teams lose by 10 goals, 12 goals, you know. The score margins have gotten lesser,” she added.

“Even when you look at teams that got relegated, those were teams that really put out good fights that showed there was so much improvements when you look at the teams. “Also, the top five in the league was really, really, really competitive that really showed us that there's so much improvement though there's a lot that still needs to happen to improve the league."