Annual Report 2010/11 - Australian Water Polo Inc

A feature of the competition was the
international flavour that New Zealand
added with their inclusion into the
competition, providing our NTC teams
with an extra game in the round stages.
Following the NTC challenge a squad of
27 players was announced to contest the
2011 international season.
> Goalkeepers
J Dennerley (NSW/USC USA), J Hahn
(NSW), C Zveken (NSW), L Quinlivan (WA).
> Centre Forwards
M Baird (NSW), J Beadsworth (WA),
J Davie (NSW/USC USA), J Howden (QLD),
J Swift (WA).
> Centre Backs
R Campbell (NSW), T Cleland (WA),
R Maitland (QLD/Barcelona), A Martin
(QLD/Sabadell), T Martin (NSW/Camogli
Italy), A Younger (WA/Szeget Hungary).
> Right Side
J Cotterill (NSW/Chios Greece),
B Edwards (VIC), M Emery (NSW),
J Gilchrist (VIC), B Miller (QLD), A Roach
(NSW/Zak Serbia).
> Left Side
S Avallone (NSW/Camogli Italy), S Cody
(NSW), R Howden (QLD), D Lawrence (WA),
S McGregor (VIC), N O’Halloran (WA).
Volvo Cup- Miskolc
February 2011
The Australian Men’s Team assembled
in Budapest in preparation for the Volvo
Cup - a 4 team International Tournament
in Miskolc 2 hours north of Budapest. The
young Sharks team comprised of 4 players
drawn from the Australian National
League and 11 others playing with clubs in
Europe and from the US Collegiate system.
The team was Joel Dennerley, Aidan Roach,
Chris Dyson, Jeremy Davie, Rob Maitland
(Captain), Anthony Martin, Aaron Younger,
Tyler Martin, Joel Swift, Johnno Cotterill,
Mace Rapsey, Lachlan Hollis, Carl Zvekan,
Joszef Baczer, Dan Young.
The tournament was a fantastic
opportunity to bring together our
overseas based players along with
providing opportunities for younger
players to experience high level
international competition.
In a fantastic effort the Aussie Sharks
surfaced just behind Hungary and
ahead of Germany and Canada to
take second place. In the final game
of this tournament against world
number 7 Germany, and with the
experience of Rob Maitland and Anthony
Martin missing due to Spanish club
commitments, the Sharks went into
this encounter as underdogs. However
with an aggressive start to the game
the Sharks jumped the Germans and
hung on to the one goal margin, bearing
testament to my belief in the increased
depth within the national squad.
May 2011
Boot Camp held at Jervis Bay - our first
assembly of the complete national
squad (with the return of all overseas
players) did not occur until May. In
addition to regular training at NSWIS,
the squad also underwent a two day
bonding/boot camp at the Jervis Bay
naval base. The players and staff who
attended all reported positive reviews
and experiences that they felt would
certainly be beneficial for the team in
the upcoming international season. The
players have expressed that they are very
keen to undertake this type of activity in
preparation for London 2012.
March 2011: All stars game
A great addition to the NL fixture, born
through the suggestion of Jeff Barrow, to
showcase the best talent in Australia in
a similar manner to what happens in the
professional sporting leagues in the USA.
This was without doubt the highest
quality game played in Australia this
season. The skill and pace of the game
was equivalent to an international game
and both players and supporters agreed
it was a resounding success.
The inaugural victors of the Andrew
Kerr Cup were the Southern team after
clinching victory in overtime.
Following the game an All Stars team
of 13 players was announced based
upon performances in the match. In the
future this will become the all-stars team
presented at the annual NL awards dinner.
The 2011 team was Eddie Slade, Sam
McGregor, Brian Alexander, Rhys
Howden, Gavin Woods, Richie Campbell,
Thomas Whalan, Joel Swift, Billy Miller,
Daniel Lawrence, Mitch Baird, Tim
Cleland, Mitch Emery.
World League
> Preliminary rounds
The Australian Sharks men’s water
polo team finished with a perfect eight
wins from as many games in the two
preliminary rounds held in Auckland
and Sydney. Over the course of the two
rounds we took the opportunity to
blood quite a few junior players, using
27 players across the two weeks. Once
again it is testament to the depth of
our programs that we were able to go
through the tournament undefeated.
Europe tour and WL Finals
> Pescara
The overall result and fourth place in
Pescara was not quite as expected or
hoped. Assembling the squad together
for the first time since July last year
presented cohesion difficulties and it’s
always a challenge after such a period of
absence to get all players onto the same
wavelength in terms of playing as a team.
> Budapest
During the week in Hungary we devoted
a lot of time on our attack and defensive
systems and they seemed to be coming
together well in terms of player
understanding and execution. However
in the one exhibition game V Hungary,
we really struggled to again find any
cohesion in attack or defense under
game pressure which was concerning.
> Florence
After a gruelling week of training in
Hungary we headed to Florence, Italy for
the FINA World League finals where we
finished in 6th place.
In the first game we lost any chance of
upsetting Croatia with a shocking 4-0
first quarter. Our inability to convert at
least as many opportunities in front of
goals as our opposition cost us dearly.
We started much better against Canada
in Game 2 but had some defensive lapses
this time allowing them a sniff in the
second quarter. We effectively iced the
game after half time which was pleasing.
Shooting decisions and execution was
our killer in the third game against
Montenegro. Defensively we had a
superb game conceding just four goals
(2 in extraman and 2 penalties) but we
could not put the crunch shots away
when it counted.
This became more evident as we
eventually lost the game on penalties.
Game 4 was against Italy and again a poor
defensive period in the second quarter
allowed them to get a three goal buffer
before we came storming home only to miss
our last extraman attacking play to tie it up.
16 | Australian Water Polo 2010/11 Annual Report