The Buccaneers have been serial trophy winners in recent seasons, claiming two Nedbank Cups and three successive MTN8 titles in the last three years.
It seems a matter of time before they add a long overdue league title to that, having finished runners-up to Mamelodi Sundowns in the last two seasons.
By contrast, Parker’s former team, Kaizer Chiefs, have been in steady decline for more than a decade, with the last piece of silverware they lifted coming in the form of the league title in the 2014/15 campaign.
And the 38-year-old, who these days coaches TS Galaxy’s youngsters, believes that a return to a winning formula - and the buy-in of everyone involved - is key to the Buccaneers’ revival under coach Jose Riveiro.
“Pirates have found a formula again,” he told the Izinja zeGame podcast, hosted by former Wits, Chiefs, Sundowns and Moroka Swallows winger Josta Dladla.
“Pirates won the Double Treble with Bra Happy [Jele], with the generation of Lucky Lekgwathi and [Siyabonga] Sangweni. [But] after the Treble they had a cleanout; they let go of a lot of players - Moeneeb Josephs, Diane Klate - and they couldn’t replace the type of quality that they had. [As a result], they went through a hiccup.
“But that 4-3-3 culture that they had? Fire! And that same 4-3-3 that is the Pirates culture, it’s now! It’s what we see now. A whole lot of energy and flair that you see with that right now.
“So Pirates have revived their culture. Nothing to do with anything else, it’s all about the culture. And now … what does that culture do? It fills the seats. Have you seen how Orlando [Stadium] looks? Yooooh!
“And what does that do to the players? It gives them that extra ‘oomph’, that extra energy. The players are now in a good mindset, level-headed, and the consistency is there.”