Annual Report 2010/11 - Australian Water Polo Inc

Senior Men’s Report
The 2010/11 season began with
the World League/World Cup
tour to Europe.
A squad of 15 players was selected to
represent Australia.
FINA World League Super Finals,
Nis, Serbia, July:
Mitchell Baird, Ritchie Campbell, John
Cotterill, Joel Dennerley, Rhys Howden,
Sam McGregor, Rob Maitland (C),
Anthony Martin, Billy Miller,
Nick O’Halloran, James Stanton,
Joel Swift, Aaron Younger.
Head Coach: John Fox. Assistant
Coaches: Paul Oberman, Frank Otto.
Manager: Gary Rydberg. Osteopath:
Andrew Gott. Referee: Michael Hart.
FINA World Cup, Oradea,
Romania, July-August:
Mitchell Baird, Ritchie Campbell, John
Cotterill, Joel Dennerley,
Rhys Howden, Sam McGregor,
Rob Maitland (C), Anthony Martin, Billy
Miller, Nick O’Halloran,
James Stanton, Joel Swift, Aaron Younger.
Head Coach: John Fox. Assistant Coach:
Paul Oberman. Manager: Gary Rydberg.
Osteopath: Andrew Gott.
Referee: Michael Hart.
Some of the more significant positive
aspects of the tour included:
• Defeat of world ranked number 2
(Spain) and number 3 (Croatia) in
world league.
• Top 4 finish in world league
The areas of significance that were most
disappointing included:
• 6th finish at world cup; not being able to
back up performance from world league
• Extra-man attack. Fell way below our
revised target of 50%
• Lack of focus in attack with a strong
CF presence
• Inability to convert clutch goals which
would normally be scored.
The anticipated availability and possible
return of some senior players in the
next 2 years will bolster our stocks, but
what is just as important is the valuable
experience gained by our ‘young’ team.
Notable performances came from:
• Aaron Younger who was on his 1st
senior European tour and performed
exceptionally well, especially at CB.
• Sam McGregor had a fantastic tour,
especially given that he was returning
from a year lay-off. He will continue to find
his niche on the international arena to
be a dominant player in the next 2 years.
• Rhys Howden again proved to be a
dangerous player on the left hand side of
the pool, and defensively is very sound.
• Billy Miller provided many
opportunities in attack through his
driving and counter attack prowess and
is beginning to establish himself as a
consistent international performer.
• Both goal keepers who had excellent
tours, with James Stanton having
his best tournament (World Cup) for
a number of years. Joel Dennerley
played a very strong support role both
in and out of the water for James and
the team. When Joel was called upon
to step in for James, he performed
consistently and competently gaining
the respect of the opposition and trust
of our defence.
I noted two comments which I feel sum
up our tour this year:
• On the Italian water polo website our
team has been described as the revelation
team of the world league tournament,
with a strong counter attack and some
exciting young prospects.
• The Serbian team commented that we
are doing the right thing in bringing
the youth through and they believe we
will continue to improve until London
whereas other teams may be already
peaking and don’t have the quality or
depth of juniors to step into senior
international water polo in such a
short time.
The opportunity for players to play
professionally overseas was again a
highlight of the mens program.
15 players from various levels of the men’s
program gained contracts with various
clubs in Europe and colleges in USA.
These included Aaron Younger (Szeged
Hungary), Anthony Martin (Sabadell
Spain), Rob Maitland (Barcelona Spain;
Kings Cup champions), Johnno Coterill
(Chios Greece), Aidan Roach (Zak Serbia),
Tyler Martin and Samuele Avalone
(Camogli Italy), Joszef Balasc (UTS
Hungary), Richie Hyden (Seville Spain),
Joel Dennerley, Jeremy Davies and Mace
Rapsey (USC USA; NCAA champions),
Perry Short (Berkeley USA), Matt Gronow
and Fraser Bunn (Santa Barbara USA).
These players provided weekly updates
and reports of matches played which
made for great reading on AWPI website.
Following the world league and world
cup review it was decided that we
needed to address one specific problem
that had been an issue for national
men’s teams since 2008. With the
unavailability of experienced and proven
international CF’s and the identified
weakness of our junior players in this
position a proposal to conduct CF
specific camps was tabled. In an effort
to improve our performances at CF and
to also ‘fast track’ potential international
players for this position we instigated
a series of 3 CF camps in the 3 major
NTC’s of Perth, Sydney and Brisbane.
This trial proved to be very successful
and the benefits of which were evident
in competition throughout the national
league and international season.
Many thanks to the specialist coaches
involved (see acknowledgments)
October 2010
The NSWIS/QAS trip to Japan and
establishment of reciprocal tours was
a new initiative that was born from
the desire to provide fringe national
squad members an opportunity for
international competition. It has proven
to be a resounding success with great
collaboration established between
Australia and Japan. We will be continuing
to foster this relationship and provide
game opportunities in future years.
Immediately after the NTC challenge I
was fortunate to attend the final weeks
of the USA finals to witness USC take
away the NCAA championship for the
2nd year running. It was a thrill to see
our 3 Australian boys captained by Joel
Dennerley take out the championship. Joel
was also awarded with all-American status.
November 2010
NTC challenge- another high quality
event this year hosted on the Gold Coast.
NSWIS won their 1st title after a close
fought game with WAIS, with former
title holders QAS finishing in 3rd place.
Australian Water Polo 2010/11 Annual Report | 15