2009-10 Annual Report - Australian Water Polo Inc

Australian
Water Polo Inc
2009-10
Annual Report

Australian Water Polo Inc would like to thank the following partners

The purpose of this Annual Report is to report to our
stake-holders — Members, Federal Government, State
Governments, Australian Sports Commission, Australian
Institute of Sport, Australian Olympic Committee, State
Institutes and Academies of Sport, Sponsors and the Water
Polo Community — our year’s achievements as we strive to
promote water polo at all levels.
Contents
Office Bearers 2
Australian Water Polo Honour Roll 3
Australian Sports Commission Message 4
President’s Report 5
Chief Executive Officer’s Report 6
High Performance Manager’s Report 6
Operations Report 8
National Development Report 10
National Media Report 11
National League Report 12
Senior Men’s Report 14
Senior Women’s Report 19
Hall of Fame Dinner 24-25
Junior Women’s Report 26
Youth Girls’ Report 27
Athletes’ Commission Report 28
National Capitation 2008-09 31
Annual Financial Report 32
National Championships Results 2009-10 40
National Teams & Results 2008-09 41
Australian Government Sports Training Grants 47
Australian Water Polo Inc
Members
Queensland Water Polo Inc
New South Wales Water Polo Inc
Australian Capital Territory Water Polo Inc
Victorian Water Polo Inc
Tasmanian Water Polo Inc
South Australian Water Polo Inc
Western Australian Water Polo Inc
Northern Territory Water Polo Inc
Affiliation
Australian Water Polo Inc is affiliated to Swimming
Australia Ltd.
Mission Statement
AWPI will be recognised and accepted as a successful major
sporting organisation both in Australia and internationally
through its astute and planned management, the
performance of international teams and the presentation
of water polo at all levels.
COVERS:
Front: The Australian Sports Commission banner takes pride of place at the NWPL Finals Series at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic
Centre in May 2010. Credit: www.pearsephotography.com,au
Back: The triumphant Australian men after winning the World Student Games gold medal in Belgrade, Serbia in 2009.
1

HONORARY OFFICERS
Patron
Peter Montgomery AM
BOARD
President
Peter Kerr AM
Directors
Leanne Barnes
John Birch
Trent Franklin
Warren Hawtin
David Martin
Phillip Scales
Nathan Thomas (retired 13 February 2010)
Amy Hetzel (appointed 13 February 2010)
STATE DELEGATES
Queensland
Trevor Giles
New South Wales
David Marks
Australian Capital Territory
Andrew Digan
Victoria
Annabel Sides
Tasmania
Bill Roach
South Australia
Jon Harmer
Western Australia
Stephen O’Keefe
Northern Territory
John Cossons
NATIONAL COACHES
Senior Men
John Fox
Senior Women
Greg McFadden
Junior Men
Mark Hubbard
Junior Women
Greig Richardson
Youth Boys
Simon Daley
Youth Girls ‘93
Peter Szilagyi
Office Bearers 2009-10
REFEREES’ COMMISSION
Chairman
Michael McNeill
Commissioners
Nicola Johnson
Phillip Scales
Scott Schweickle
Damir Stajduhar
ATHLETES’ COMMISSION
Chairman
Trent Franklin
Commissioners
Nikita Cuffe
Toby Jenkins
Bronwen Knox
Thomas Whalan
NATIONAL LEAGUE COMMISSION
Chairman
Warren Hawtin
Commissioners
John Birch
Christopher Harrison
Stephen O’Keefe
Danielle Woodhouse
PERSONNEL
Chief Executive Officer
Christopher Harrison
Secretary General/High Performance Manager
John Whitehouse OAM
Operations Manager/NWPL General Manager
Peter Hobday
National Development Manager
Scott Schweickle
National Media Manager
Russell McKinnon
Finance Manager
Glen Ransley
Finance Assistants
Denis Kerslake
Allan Park
Administration Officer
Julia Annells
Merchandise Officer
David Clarke
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LIFE MEMBERS
Peter Montgomery AM 1993
Tom Hoad AM 2009
Pat Jones 2009
Harry Quittner 2009
David Woods 2009
HONORARY LIFE PRESIDENT
Harry Quittner
HALL OF FAME
Wendy Arancini (nee Meloncelli, WA) 2009
Debbie Cummins (nee Handley, QLD) 2009
Tom Hoad (WA 2009
Andrew Kerr (NSW) 2009
Peter Montgomery AM (NSW) 2009
Cathy Parkes (NSW) 2009
Charles Turner (SA & NSW) 2009
Debbie Watson (NSW) 2009
John Whitehouse (TAS) 2009
Bill Berge-Phillips (NSW) 2010
Bridgette Gusterson (WA) 2010
David Neesham (WA) 2010
John O’Brien (VIC 2010
Harry Quittner (VIC) 2010
Ray Smee (NSW) 2010
David Woods (NSW) 2010
Australian Water Polo Honour Roll
HARRY QUITTNER MEDAL RECIPIENTS
1986 Charles Turner
1987 Debbie Cummins
1988 Peter Montgomery
1989 Tom Hoad
1990 Andrew Kerr
1991 John Whitehouse
1992 Chris Wybrow &
Debbie Watson
1993 Not awarded
1994 Ray Mayers
1995 Pat Jones
1996 Don Cameron
1997-2006 Not awarded
2007 Nathan Thomas
2008 Tracy Rockwell
2009 Leanne Barnes
2008 AWARD WINNERS
Male Player
Female Player
Junior Male Player
Junior Female Player
Coach
Volunteer
Referee
2009 AWARD WINNERS
Male Player
Female Player
Junior Male Player
Junior Female Player
Coach
Player with a Disability
Volunteer
Referee
Gavin Woods
Melissa Rippon
Aaron Younger
Breanna Appel
Greg McFadden
Jeanette Gunn
Michael Hart
Rob Maitland
Bronwen Knox
Jeremy Davie
Zoe Arancini
Paul Oberman
Bridgette Moore
Graham Wulf
Danny Flahive
Australian Isobel Bishop shoots for goal against Spain
at the FINA Junior Women’s World Championships in
Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in August 2009.
3

A Message from the
Australian Sports Commission
4
It is an honour to serve as the new Chair of the
Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Board at this
challenging and exciting period for our national sporting
system.
The ASC and National Sporting Organisations (NSOs)
have long spoken of a shared ambition to strengthen
relationships between all system partners involved in
Australian sport.
Aligned with this ambition, the Australian Government
is now encouraging a whole-of-sport reform agenda,
aimed at establishing a more collaborative, efficient and
integrated sports system.
Through new direction for sport “Australian Sport:
the Pathway to Success”, the ASC will work closely
with sport to achieve its main objectives: boost sports
participation and strengthen sporting pathways while
striving for international success.
The reform agenda seeks for the ASC to assist, to
provide stability and support for all sporting organisations
in their pursuit of a shared, common purpose; creating
a better sporting pathway for all Australians, from the
grassroots up.
The ASC will implement the new direction, and this
includes collaboration with all NSOs to allocate a record
amount of new sports funding – committing an extra
$195 million over the next four years.
This funding is in addition to the current ongoing
baseline funding for NSOs. Also, the ASC will assist
sporting organisations with access to coaching and
officiating programs, governance support, planning and
education opportunities and assistance with becoming
more inclusive – particularly in the areas of Indigenous
sport, sport for people with a disability, sport for people
from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
and women’s sport development programs.
This is the first time key sport partners, such as State
and Territory institutes and academies of sport and State
and Territory departments of sport and recreation, have
collaborated on a Commonwealth funding decision in the
interests of Australia’s sporting future.
This is an exciting time for all of us involved in
Australian sport. With significant new funding from the
Australian Government, sports will be better positioned
than ever before to lead the drive for higher participation
levels and strong success on the sporting field by
promoting the unique nature of their sport, creating a
legacy and a lasting impression for communities across
the country.
The ASC will continue to work with all NSOs, the
State and Territory institutes and academies of sport and
State and Territory departments of sport and recreation,
reinvigorating access to, and participation in, sport
across the community and driving Australia’s continued
sporting success.
The Hon. Warwick Smith
Chairman

➤ President’s Report
The 2009-2010 year has been an important year of
change.
Our first CEO, Chris Harrison, has been 12 months in
the job and has taken some important steps for the future
of the sport. Among these is the establishment of the
head office for Australian Water Polo in Sydney. There
are a number of other initiatives that he is undertaking
with the support of the Board, which will better ensure
the future of our sport.
Bronwen Knox shoots against Greece at the FINA World
Championships in Rome.
The year was dominated by the FINA World
Championships, including Roma 09 and junior men’s
and women’s championships respectively in Croatia and
Russia.
Coming off on Olympic quadrennial there has been a
substantial turnover of athletes and, with plans in place
for London 2012, I believe that we are well on the way
to achieving our best Olympic results. Thanks go to our
coaches, particularly Greg McFadden — Head Coach
women — and John Fox — Head Coach men. Supportive
of our international programs was a very well-conducted
National Water Polo League. Congratulations to the
winners — VICI Brisbane Barracudas in the women and
Victorian Tigers in the men. Particular thanks to our
referees as it is a difficult job and prime weekend and
other time is selflessly given up. National tournaments
were also successfully conducted at ages 14, 16 and 18
years as well as the Institute Challenge for both men and
women.
Again, the Hall of Fame dinner, held in conjunction with
the NWPL finals, was very successful. Congratulations to
the six inductees — Bridgette Gusterson, John O’Brien,
Ray Smee, David Neesham, David Woods and the late
Bill Berge-Phillips.
Life Membership was also bestowed upon Tom Hoad,
Pat Jones, David Woods and Harry Quittner — a most
deserving group.
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the
Australian Sports Commission and the Australian Institute
of Sport. Those organisations and their staff have been
tremendous in assisting us.
Also, the various Institutes and Academies around
the country have been most supportive. NSWIS and
Charles Turner have been particularly supportive in their
assistance for the new AWPI office at Homebush and the
help they have given Chris Harrison as CEO.
The Australian Olympic Committee is always there
behind us with financial and other support and we
thank John Coates AC and his staff. The AOC makes a
tremendous difference to sports like ours.
We have also received great support and assistance
from Ross Coggan and Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic
Centre, particularly for the international men’s tournament
in January.
Finally, thank you to Chris Harrison and all our staff
for your dedication to the organisation.
Peter Kerr
President
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➤ Chief Executive Officer’s
Report
I am privileged to be the CEO of Australian Water
Polo Inc, not only because it has held such a special
part in my life, but an opportunity to be an integral part
of the next growth cycle of the sport. Water polo is a
genuine, welcoming and inclusive sport that is available
to both young and old, male and female from Flippa Ball
to masters.
Within these opening lines it is appropriate that
I mention the tremendous support we receive from
the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian
Olympic Committee and I thank the Chief Executive
Officer of the ASC, Matt Miller, and the President of the
AOC, John Coates, respectively.
Among our significant partners are our State Institutes
and Academies through which our talented athletes
receive the major part of their high performance training.
I must mention the significant help and assistance we
have received as a national sporting body from the
CEO of the New South Wales Institute of Sport, Charles
Turner. Effective partnerships rely on a team approach
and with this alignment we have formed a collaborative
and cohesive relationship with our major stakeholders.
Our thoughts go to the Mayer family on the untimely
death of water polo stalwart Fred Mayer. In his memory,
the family has established the Fred Mayer Foundation,
which saw the contribution of $10,000 to AWPI to be used
to assist development of water polo. This is an ongoing
donation. The first recipient of this assistance will be
announced at the next Hall of Fame Dinner. Further, the
NWPL men’s trophy was named after Fred. Our thanks
to Sam and Robbie Mayer for their wonderful gesture.
This year AWPI reviewed the senior high performance
programs, which resulted in the formation of the High
Performance Committee, which provides the framework,
including direction, management and support to the high
performance programs for both head coaches.
In line with our review of the sport, AWPI has
undertaken an independent, external review of its
operations and structure. While these can be timeconsuming,
it is no different in importance to ensuring a
new-house build has good foundations.
When the outcome of this review has been released
the changes that eventuate will ensure not only the
financial health of our sport but equally of importance,
good governance.
Our ultimate goal is to provide an enduring framework
and pathway that any aspiring athlete will be given an
opportunity to fulfill his or her dream of representing the
country. While taking into account the high-performance
needs, we must not forget or overlook the cultivation
of the grassroots of the sport. This is essential in our
ongoing development. I was fortunate to witness the
numbers participating in the14 & Under National Club
Championships held in Brisbane in April. I look forward
to working with our State partners in creating a robust
and sustainable development plan that encourages
participation.
Taking into account the popularity of our web site, this
year saw AWPI become a trailblazer in the technology
of web broadcasting. We have formed an alliance with
rivusTV, which allows for games from the National
League or internationals to be streamed live worldwide,
and I believe holds much future potential for us.
Acknowledgements
In closing, I thank the Board of AWPI and the President,
Peter Kerr, for their continued support. Also, the Athletes’
Commission for its valuable input and the staff of AWPI
for their endeavours and hard work throughout the past
year.
Chris Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
➤ High Performance Manager’s
Report
The organisation and management of the High
Performance Program was overseen by a High

➪
➪
➪
Performance Committee comprising representatives
from the ASC, AIS, AWPI and the respective national
coaches; the HPC met quarterly and provided excellent
support to the national coaches in assisting them to
achieve in most part all KPIs across both domestic and
international activities.
The current High Performance Program for men is
a decentralised National Training Centre (NTC)-based
program with centres in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne
and Perth supported by the SIS/SAS network and an
Elite Development Centre (ETC) in Adelaide again
supported by the SIS/SAS network. These programs
deliver the daily training environment for the athletes.
In January 2010 we welcomed the inclusion of the VIS
in the NTC men’s program. The athletes attending the
centres are generally national senior, junior and youth
squad members. A number of the men’s national team
play in professional leagues overseas.
The women’s High Performance Program is again a
decentralised NTC and ETC-based program utilising the
same centres as the men’s program.
However, in addition, the AIS women’s camps-based
program permits the national squad to train together
under ideal circumstances. In January 2010 we also
welcomed the inclusion of the VIS in the NTC Women’s
Program.
Joint Management Committee (JMC) agreements
form the cornerstone of the relationship between the
national organisation and the SIS/SAS network.
An important and essential requirement for the
establishment of any NTC program is the commitment
by the member association to support the program with
an underpinning program.
Water polo, for a relatively low-profile sport, enjoys a
very comprehensive and extensive international program
and we are indebted to the many national federations
which host our teams on what seemingly is an annual
basis. In the period under review, our teams made 10
international tours to attend world championships,
international tournaments and training-camp activities.
The great extent of the international program was
delivered by our representatives at the LEN Calendar
Congress held in Copenhagen, Denmark in September
2009 and we are indeed grateful of the work done by
Tom Hoad and Chris Harrison at same.
The HPC also during the course of the year reviewed
our National Pathways Planning document and amended
it to reflect more of the current situation.
The pathways for both athletes and coaches were
updated and have been incorporated within his report:
Athlete Pathway
Coach Pathway
➪ ➪ ➪
ASC Scholarship Coach Program Accelerated Pathway
SIS/SAS
SIS/SAS
SIS/SAS
National Team
➪
National Squad
(AIS Women’s Program)
➪
Professional Leagues
National League
➪
SIS/SAS/Elite Scholarship Squad
High
Performance
Coach
Senior
Club
Coach
Club
Coach
➪
➪
National 20s Squad
State 18s
➪
National 18s Squad
➪
National 17s (Schools)
➪
National 16s
➪
Club
➪
➪
➪
State 20s
National Coach
➪
Universiade Coach
➪
National Junior/Youth/Girls
Coach
➪
SIS/SAS Coach
➪
National League Coach
(Club Head Coach)
➪
State Coach
➪
University Coach
➪
Inter Schools Coach
(State, Regional, Private)
➪
Club Coach
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8
World University Games Gold Medal
I have deliberately avoided making reference to the
performance of our teams as others have addressed
these elsewhere in the report, particularly the respective
national coaches. However it would be remiss not to
acknowledge the outstanding performance of our men’s
World University Games team in Belgrade, Serbia in July
2009.
The winning of this important FISU event against very
strong opposition, including Croatia and Serbia, was an
excellent result and illustrated the depth of talent we have
in this country. Congratulations to coach Paul Oberman,
manager Jon Sieben and all the players.
Impacts and Challenges
• To convince partners about the need for an AIS
Men’s Program;
• There is concern about being able to retain senior
athletes in the program post Olympic Cycle;
• Being able to provide access to coaching programs
for all national squad athletes, particularly youth
squad athletes;
• Uncertainty of Federal Government funding (now
quantified);
• Optional formatting and scheduling of national
competitions; also debate of club vis-à-vis State
competitions;
• Access of coach availability for national duties;
• Uncertainty regarding commitment from all SIS/
SASs;
• A need to create an acceptable coaching
infrastructure for sub-elite coaches;
• Developing and supporting referees to world
standard;
• Balance athlete training and work commitments.
Acknowledgements
It is appropriate to acknowledge the support of all
funding and support agencies that contribute to the High
Performance Program, namely the ASC, AIS, SIS/SAS,
AOC and sponsors, in particular, Turbo Crotton SA,
SOPAC, NSWIS, Auspole and Longmont Engineering;
to the national senior, junior, youth and girls’ coaches,
assistant coaches, managers, support staff and referees,
AIS coaches and support staff and the NTC coaches
– thank you for your dedication and support given to our
athletes.
John Whitehouse
High Performance Manager
Kate Gynther gives her all for champion VICI Brisbane
Barracudas at the NWPL Finals Series in Sydney.
➤ Operations Report
Membership
Following consultation with State Associations, further
categories of capitation fees were added and allowances
for regional areas were introduced. Players in regional
areas will pay 75 percent of the capitation fees for both
AWPI and their State Associations in recognition that
they may not benefit from programs as much as their
“city cousins” do. This will hopefully encourage country
players to continue their membership.
New categories for schoolchildren were introduced
to foster membership where the State Associations
may be involved in either running or supporting school
competitions.
Insurance
Insurance cover available for its members, clubs and
associations includes:
• Sports Injury
• Public Liability
• Professional Indemnity
• Workers’ Compensation
• Directors’ and Officers’ Liability
• Travel Insurance

• Club Property
• Club Travel
AWPI continues to review its risk management
policies. Unfortunately, with significant claims lodged in
past years, which have exceeded our premium paid, our
current premiums continue to be under some pressure.
National Championships
Due to re-positioning in the AWPI calendar, there
were no 20 & Under National Championships conducted
in this reporting period. The 18 & Under Junior Men and
Women Championships were conducted in January
2010 in Perth, at Challenge Stadium. The boys’ title was
won by NSW Blues, defeating WA in a penalty shootout,
and the girls’ winner was New South Wales Blues.
Queensland Water Polo Inc hosted the 2009 16 & Under
Club Championships, which featured 43 club teams (19
in the boys’ and 24 in the girls’ events). Melville Sharks
won the boys’ championship and Cronulla was the girls’
champion. The final national event for the year was the
14 & Under Club Championships played at the Valley and
All Hallows School pools in Brisbane. Hunter Hurricanes
won the girls’ club championship while Melville Sharks
won gold in the boys’ championship.
These championships are made possible though
the cooperation of the State Associations and the many
volunteers. Thank you to those people who make their
time so freely available.
We have been fortunate to have some very willing
workers to assist with the appointment of referees
during these championships. As well, these people have
mentored our young referees and encouraged them to
become involved at higher levels of refereeing. Thank
you.
Governance, Policies & Procedures
The Strategic Plan for the period 2009-2013 was
completed in conjunction with our stakeholders and will
serve as a guide for the next Olympiad.
James Stanton rises to the occasion at the FINA World
Championships in Rome.
Awards and Hall of Fame Presentations
More than 120 people attended the second AWPI Hall
of Fame and Awards dinner at Sydney Olympic Park on
May 7.
Six additional inductees joined the inaugural nine
members in the AWPI Hall of Fame —
• Bill Berge-Phillips (NSW)
• Bridgette Gusterson (WA)
• David Neesham (WA)
• John O’Brien (VIC)
• Ray Smee (NSW)
• David Woods (NSW)
Four people were acknowledged as Life Members of
AWPI
• Tom Hoad AM (WA)
• Pat Jones (NSW)
• Harry Quittner (VIC)
• David Woods (NSW)
They join Peter Montgomery AM (NSW) .
Presentations were made for the following AWPI
awards.
Male Athlete of the Year
2008 2009
Gavin Woods
Female Athlete of the Year
Melissa Rippon
Male Junior Athlete of the Year
Aaron Younger
Female Junior Athlete of the Year
Player with Disability
Coach of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Referee of the Year
Breanna Appel
Greg McFadden
Jeanette Gunn
Michael Hart
Rob Maitland
Bronwen Knox
Jeremy Davie
Zoe Arancini
Bridgette Moore
Paul Oberman
Graham Wulf
Danny Flahive
Our congratulations go to Leanne Barnes, who was
awarded the Harry Quittner Medal for her contribution to
the Australian water polo community.
Web Site
The web site continues to be a valuable source
and resource for information and results and what’s
happening in Australian Water Polo. The number of hits
average around three million a month.
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10
Database
Our database is a national listing of all players and
their playing records. These provide a means of giving
accurate numbers of members, which is valuable
information for our stakeholders.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Chris Harrison, National Office staff and
contractors and the many volunteers out there.
Peter Hobday
Operations Manager
➤ National Development Report
The focus on development for 2009-10 has been
to improve and service ongoing coach and referee
education structures along with the further development
of our grass roots participation program, Flippa Ball TM .
Building better relationships with State Associations
(SAs) is an integral part of moving forward and some work
has also been done in this area with the introduction of
an online SKYPE development workshop between State
Development Officers (SDOs) and AWPI.
Some of the highlights for the year included:
Coach Pathway
The Coach Education Pathway has been redeveloped
and several changes have been made to provide a more
streamlined approach in delivery and to align more
closely with the athlete pathway.
ASC Assessor Program
Additional funding was procured to conduct an
assessor course for coaches and officials interested in
learning this skill set.
The course formed part of the National Coach &
Referee Conference. We now have more than 40
combined coach and referee assessors throughout the
country.
These people will assist State Associations in
delivering the assessment component for both the NCAS
Club Coach and NOAS Level 1 Referees’ courses.
New Electronic Development Services
A number of new services has been set up to assist
our clubs and members with access to immediate upto-date
development news as it comes to hand. These
include:
Online Secure Coaches’ Portal
This is an electronic knowledge base that provides:
video clips of technique; public drill register; references
to water polo sports science papers; podcasts etc.
Coaches’ Blog
This is an update information portal for coaches
providing regularly updated content covering: Available
grants; drill of the week; links to generic coaching articles;
links to YouTube coaching video clips and information on
when and where coaching courses are conducted.
Referees’ Blog
This is an update information portal for referees
providing regularly updated content covering: Available
grants; new rule interpretations; links to generic referee
articles; links to YouTube referee video clips and
information on when and where referee courses are
conducted.
Outside 5m Blog
This is an update information portal for clubs and
associations providing regularly updated content
covering: Available grants; Tax Office updates for nonprofit
organisations; links to club-based development
articles.
Twitter
A new Twitter page for Australian Water Polo has
been also created.
National Coach and Referee Conference
For the first time we conducted a National Coach and
Referee Conference in Sydney. Seventy-nine participants
attended with a 60/40 split of coaches and referees
in attendance. The Olympic Solidarity Unit provided
funding in part for the conference, which enabled us to
engage Dr Balazs Vincze from Hungary as our keynote
presenter.
The program content covered intermediate level
presentations on coaching and refereeing water polo.
Keynote presentations included:
Theory
• Coaching the centre forward/centre back
• Refereeing centre forward
• Attack strategies
• Defence strategies

Attendees at the national conference in Sydney in May,
2010.
• Coaching the goalkeeper; outside shooter
• Culture, tradition and system of water polo in
Hungary
• Technical analysis of the Hungarian shooting
action
• Refereeing game advantage
• Video performance analysis in water polo
• New FINA rule interpretations
• Coach and referee accreditation/new resources
All delegates were invited to attend the men’s national
training camp to watch, observe and interact with NTC
coaches and appointed referees.
Acknowledgements
In closing, I would like to thank the following people
for their support throughout the year — Chris Harrison,
Peter Hobday, John Whitehouse and Hobart office staff,
Michael Westdorp for his help with the conference and
finally, thank you to all of our conference presenters for
their time and enthusiasm during the conference.
Scott Schweickle
National Development Manager
➤ National Media Report
The past year was unusual in a media sense as it
was the post-Beijing Olympic Games year.
It was unusual on two fronts. The first was the fact that
it was a non-Olympic year after the euphoria of a bronze
medal and the second was that our national teams were
rebuilding and failed to produce substantive results.
As senior teams build to the 2012 Olympic Games,
results will start coming but as was shown in Rome at
the FINA World Championships in July, 2009, our teams
were not at the same high standard of some other
nations. Retirements and team adjustments after Beijing
meant biting the bullet and not producing high results
that normally keep the media happy.
However, we did keep the media informed of our
many happenings, sending out in excess of 200 media
releases and maintaining a high-quality website, which
was constantly updated.
Web Site
The hit rate on the web site is starting to mount as
more and more people become aware of its excellent
news and information capabilities. The quietest month
was September with just over two million hits while May
was one of four months with more than three million hits,
reaching 3.84 million. During the National Water Polo
League season there were 12.4 million hits. May proved
to be the busiest month of the year with 83,609 visitors to
the site. Plans are in process to revitalise the site.
The hardest thing about a site such as ours is that
there is a voracious appetite for information. Time zones
make it hard to keep up for some people with the site
having to be refreshed when information comes to
hand. Therefore, there are constant calls for when the
information is to be posted. With international tours, there
is a huge demand on the time of managers, who have to
tend to a team and then try to get internet connections
to write and post stories on matches. This, then, has to
be processed at this end and posted. This is done as
swiftly as possibly but teams do miss days and it is hard
to source information by other means. Texting is starting
to prove popular.
The Meltwater News link at the bottom of the home
page provides information gleaned from newspapers
around the world. Small newspapers cover much of their
stories online while bigger newspapers only place up
major stories. Thus, as a smaller sport, we miss coverage
in this area. However, we must note that many stories
that do appear in newspapers are not placed online and
miss this vital link. We update this feature almost daily
with stories we think you want to read.
Newspapers
This is the arena we most want to convert. Sporadically,
the main metropolitan newspapers cover various stories
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Nic O’Halloran takes on a Serbian player during the FINA
World Championships in Rome.
while local community newspapers are where we need
to be constantly exposed.
The success at reaching a greater audience through
major newspapers and other media is the hosting of major
events, that catch the attention of the news editors. Our
National Water Polo League is so long with a multitude
of matches over a tremendous number of days, that it is
hard for the media to follow. Results are the best way of
doing this.
However, community newspapers would gladly take
stories from the local teams on a regular basis and
to this end, team media officers need to be vigilant to
story ideas and regular in supplying them, with photos,
if possible. This means clubs MUST appoint media
officers. These could be university media students
looking for experience, much like the host of students we
had working the NWPL Finals Series in Sydney. Make a
point of approaching the local media school and asking
if anyone is interested. Look after that person and you
might get some interesting results.
These people could then find out if local television is
interested in covering NWPL or major matches.
International Results
We normally gain good responses from our short
stories on how teams are doing internationally.
The best response all year was to the World University
Games men winning the gold medal. With the women
finishing sixth and the men 10th at the FINA World
Championships in Rome, Italy, there was little interest
after the early rounds. A bronze medal for the women at
the FINA World League Super Finals in Kirishi, Russia,
did gain some space.
Our junior teams did not fare well at their respective
worlds but then the major newspapers are less interested
in junior sport.
FINA Role
At Rome, I was re-appointed to the FINA Press
Commission for another four-year term, which allows
me to attend major events at no cost to AWPI. In my
role as Press Delegate to major events, I covered the
FINA World Championships in Rome, the FINA Junior
Women’s World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk,
Russia and the FINA Junior Men’s World Championships
in Sibenik, Croatia. This allowed me to give fast updates
to matches online as well as a constant stream of news
and photographs.
Acknowledgements
My biggest thanks for the year go to the team
managers for their undying efforts in gaining internet
access and writing stories late into the night to satisfy
the needs of people back home. Some managers are
writing excellent stories that background the training day
and tours, keeping water polo families and fans in touch
with the touring life.
Thanks also to players who made themselves
available to the media, especially during the NWPL
Finals Series. This is excellent experience for when you
attend major events.
To the State bodies and NWPL clubs who deem
publicity is of major importance and appoint experienced
people to the role of media, well done.
To all those people who take an interest in the media
and valiantly try to get stories in local newspapers, well
done. To the regional folk, your efforts appear to me more
successful than those in the metropolitan areas. This is
still due to your hard efforts to promote our sport.
To Operations Manager Peter Hobday for his
constant support with the web site and major events,
many thanks.
To the Board, for once again putting your trust in me
to promote the sport through the media, thank you.
Russell McKinnon
National Media Manager
➤ National League Report
The Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre provided
the venue for the 2010 National Water Polo League

NWPL champion teams — Victorian Tigers men (top) and
VICI Brisbane Barracudas women (above).
Finals Series, which saw VICI Brisbane Barracudas
secure their second consecutive title by defeating KFC
Qld Breakers in an-all Queensland women’s final while
Victorian Tigers men won their first league crown since
1993 when they won as Richmond.
The NWPL Commission was chaired by Warren
Hawtin, supported by Danielle Woodhouse and Steve
O’Keefe as the Elected Commissioners while the AWPInominated
Commissioners were John Birch and Chris
Harrison.
Our statistician Doc Wulf continued to pump out facts
and figures on the league. It was great to see Doc’s
contribution acknowledged when he was awarded the
2009 Volunteer of the Year award at the AWPI Hall of
Fame Dinner.
Season Highlights
• VICI Brisbane Barracudas won their second
women’s title after finishing second after the homeand-away
games;
• The Victorian Tigers beat Drummoyne Devils in a
tight-fought, gold-medal game with Sam McGregor
starring for the Tigers;
2010 NWPL Awards
Champion men’s club (Fred Mayer Trophy):
Victorian Tigers
Champion women’s club:
VICI Brisbane Barracudas
Southern Cross Trophy men:
Fremantle Mariners
Southern Cross Trophy women:
Balmain Tigers
Charles Turner Medal (MVP men season):
Sam McGregor (Victorian Tigers)
Debbie Watson Medal (MVP women season):
Lauren Silver (Drummoyne Devils)
Tom Hoad Medal (MVP men, finals series):
Sam McGregor (Victorian Tigers)
MVP women, finals series:
Bronwen Knox (KFC Queensland Breakers)
John Whitehouse Medal (final series referees):
Daniel Bartels, Gabor Boros, Andrew
Carney, Danny Flahive, Noel Harrod,
Michael Hart, Nick Hodgers, Nicola Johnson,
Megan Varlow, Rowan Woodburn.
All Star team, men:
Daniel Lees (Sydney University Lions)
Brian Alexander (Victorian Tigers)
Mitchell Baird (Hunter Hurricanes)
Rhys Howden (VICI Brisbane Barracudas)
Sam McGregor (Victorian Tigers)
Tyler Martin (Drummoyne Devils)
Gavin Woods (Balmain Tigers)
All Star team, women:
Victoria Brown (Victorian Tigers)
Eliesha Browne (UWA Torpedoes)
Kate Gynther (VICI Brisbane Barracudas)
Bronwen Knox (KFC Queensland Breakers)
Glencora Ralph (Longmont Fremantle
Marlins)
Lauren Silver (Drummoyne Devils)
Nicola Zagame (Sealevel Cronulla Sharks)
Highest goal-scorer men:
Sam McGregor (Victorian Tigers) 60
Highest goal-scorer women:
Lauren Silver (Drummoyne Devils) 89
13

• Sydney University Lions’ Alastair Visch played a
record 345 games;
• Sharan Wheelock (Longmont Fremantle Marlins)
completed 180 games in the women’s league;
• USA import Lauren Silver (Drummoyne Devils)
shone with a season record-high 89 goals for the
women’s league.
NWPL Management
Referees
The Referees’ Commission continued its support of
the league through the appointment and development
of referees throughout the year. In particular, Damir
Stajduhar and Michael McNeill contributed a lot of time
in assisting the referees.
Sponsors and Supporters
The NWPL is fortunate to have the support of many
sponsors and the clubs also have their sponsors and we
thank the numerous NWPL and club sponsors whose
assistance and support is greatly appreciated by the
NWPL and clubs. These include the Australian Sports
Commission, Turbo Crotton SA Water Polo, Moves
Travel Group, Mikasa Sports Australia, Purnell Trophies
and Corporate Vehicle Management.
Australian Water Polo Inc continued its support
through the High Performance Program and executive
assistance through the National Office.
NWPL Review
A review of the NWPL will be undertaken by the
Australian Sports Commission with a report to be
presented by the end of January 2011. The purpose of
the review is to determine if the NWPL is meeting its
objectives and to consider the benefits going forward.
Acknowledgements
The following are acknowledged for their
contribution.
• All NWPL players, coaches, team management
and club officials;
• John Whitehouse, Allan Park, Glen Ransley, Denis
Kerslake and especially Julia Annells from the
National Office;
• All NWPL referees and delegates;
• Russell McKinnon, McKinnon Media Pty Ltd;
• Andrew Ryan and his judicial committee;
• Ross Coggan and Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic
Centre in hosting the Finals Series;
• Doc Wulf for his amazing statistical analysis of the
NWPL;
• Warren Hawtin, Chairman NWPL Commission,
Danielle Woodhouse, Steve O’Keefe, John Birch
and Chris Harrison as NWPL Commissioners;
• Damir Stajduhar, referee appointments officer;
• John Fox, national men’s coach and Greg
McFadden, national women’s coach.
Peter Hobday
NWPL General Manager
➤ Senior Men’s Report
14
One of the highest-level imports to the NWPL — Dutch
Olympic champion Mieke Cabout playing for Sealevel
Cronulla Sharks.
The main event of the year was the 2009 FINA World
Championships in Rome. Less than 12 months after the
2008 Olympics the national men’s team faced a huge task
in maintaining the standards set in previous years, given
the high turnover of the playing group, made necessary
through retirement, unavailability and injury.
The timing of the world championships meant that
we had only a short lead-in period, with some major
disruptions and not nearly enough time to prepare the

team properly as we had done in previous years.
A lead-up tournament, Germany training camp and
the Unicum Cup in Hungary comprised the first tour.
With the absence of many of the senior players in
Belgrade for the World University Games (WUG), the
senior squad selected to represent Australia at the
German common training camp and the Unicum Cup
in Hungary comprised a mixture of senior international
players, who were not eligible for WUG, and a host of
promising juniors.
Unfortunately, due to the late withdrawals of two
players — Daniel Lawrence (work commitments) and
Pietro Figlioi (defection to Italy) — we were left with a
touring party of 11 to contest training and play two friendly
internationals in Germany. We were then later joined by
returning international player Sean Boyd, who agreed
to come out of international retirement since 2001, and
Tim Cleland, who was delayed with work commitments.
This meant the squad was bolstered to 13 players for the
Unicum Cup.
The team had only three returning Olympians from
2008, and a number of debutant senior touring players.
Given the lack of experience and numbers of players
early on in the tour, it was to be expected that we would
face difficult situations against a German team that had
11 of 13 Beijing Olympians still in the squad. Germany
also had the luxury of up to 10 players trying out for the
remaining spots on the world championship roster, so
the workload was extremely high for our players.
Nevertheless, the training was invaluable and the
results of the games were reasonable, with both only
being decided in the second half after scores were close
at halftime. Final results: Germany won 17-10 and 12-
6.
At the Unicum Cup in Budapest, we lost to Germany
9-6, Hungary 10-7 and Serbia 12-6.
FINA World Championships, Rome
This edition of the world championships was always
going to be difficult due to the number of players who
retired following the Beijing Olympics.
The team had seven players (more than half the
team) missing from the 2008 Olympic team.
Basically this left the team without an established
international centre forward, few options with a back-up
centre forward, no established left-handed players and
the loss of our main attacking player and arguably one of
best shots in the world in Figlioli.
In total, the loss of these players amounted to more
than 1500 international games of experience.
Another influencing factor was that the world
championships team did not assemble until only one
week before the start of the tournament. A conscious
decision was made to send our best possible team to
the World University Games, in the hope of snaring a
good result and build a platform for the future in terms
of gaining recognition and prestige in a recognised
international event.
Other mitigating reasons that influenced the decision
to target the WUG to the possible detriment of the world
championships included:
• The WUG has been regarded as an important
competition for all European countries and the fact
that they were being hosted in Serbia made these
Games a head-line sport.
• With the demise of the 20 & Under FINA World
Championships, it gave many of our younger
athletes in this age group and other developing
senior players, an opportunity to perform on the
world stage in a highly respectable competition.
• The WUG is the only event on the water polo
calendar besides the Olympic Games where the
athletes and coaches have the opportunity to
live, practise and perform in competition under
the village atmosphere conditions. This speaks
volumes about the relevance of this event in our
planning towards the Olympic Games and the
players’ ability to cope with the demands thrown
up in living in a team-village situation.
I don’t think there has been enough recognition given
to the coaches and players on this fine achievement and
how important it is in our ongoing player development.
History shows that achievements in major sub-senior
international competitions are the best indicators for
future success of senior players and teams.
Congratulations to Paul Oberman, who coached the
team superbly; Jon Sieben, manager; and the players
who achieved Australia senior men’s first gold medal in
recognised senior international competition.
Seven players who won gold at the WUG went on to
represent Australia at the world championships.
Due to our lack of quality centre forwards, the decision
was made to call up a long-retired player to fill the void.
Sean Boyd returned to international competition despite
having a very limited training and preparatory period.
This decision was made in the hope that Sean would not
only play an important role in these championships, but
also commit longer term to assist with filling the void of
capable centre forwards at this level.
We defeated Kazakhstan 14-7, sadly dropped 13-
15

16
10 to Spain and then valiantly drew with Serbia 8-8. In
the second round we lost to Romania 7-5 to drop out
of the top eight. We beat Italy 8-6 and then lost 8-7 to
Montenegro after being three goals up two minutes into
the last quarter.
The final result of 10th place is certainly not a
satisfactory finish. Despite two teams of our group in
Spain and Serbia playing off for the gold medal, we had
a chance to move into the top eight by beating Romania
in the cross-over game. This was the crucial game we
had to win, but unfortunately it was not to be.
The boys regrouped extremely well to dispatch Italy
at home but then we had a major fall in the last game,
when we did not put Montenegro (current World League
and European champion) away.
NTC Challenge
Brisbane was the venue for the third men’s NTC
Challenge. Simon Daley, with the support of QWPI, did a
tremendous job in organising the tournament conducted
at the Valley Pool and All Hallows.
The level of competition was easily equivalent to any
top-level NWPL game and the finals series was equally
intense and closely fought. Victory went to host QAS,
who defended its title against WAIS with the NSWIS
finishing third.
After viewing performances at the NTC Challenge,
consulting with coaches and then assessing the
performance of players in Europe, a squad was named
from which players would be selected to compete
internationally in the 2009/10 season.
SOPAC International
Four teams contested this inaugural tournament,
which featured multiple international men’s teams
Richie Campbell shoots against Romania at the FINA
World Championships in Rome.
in Sydney for the first time since the 2007 pre-world
championships meet. Canada and Hungarian premier
team Vasas, which had among it ranks four Olympic gold
medallists, joined Australia and Australia A in the four-day
tournament. Unfortunately the third international team
invited to the tournament, Turkish team Galatasaray, was
a late withdrawal through player injury, which enabled
Australia A to be assembled and compete.
Australia won this tournament convincingly, going
through the rounds unbeaten and then defeating Vasas
in the final 11-6, while the young and developing Australia
A team managed to defeat world-ranked,No 8 Canada
twice to finish third.
My sincere thanks go to Ross Coggan, SOPAC
general manager and strong supporter of water polo,
who made the SOPAC tournament possible. Ross
secured a sponsorship from SOPAC for the event, in
addition to providing the magnificent venue to stage the
games. The sponsorship enabled us to assemble all
of our national team players from across Australia and
around the world, as well as providing accommodation
for the visiting international teams.
A very notable mention also goes to Charles Turner
and NSWIS, which organised and provided the catering
for athletes and officials from all four teams. Charles very
generously also allowed us full use of all NSWIS facilities
(gym, meeting rooms, offices) throughout the entire stay.
His support has been, and will continue to be, much
appreciated and without him the tournament and training
camp opportunity would not have been possible.
Andrew Yanitsas did a fine job as tournament
director, enduring the endless hours of organising
accommodation, transport, training and the demanding
requests of competing teams.
Simon Daley, ably assisted by Chris Wybrow, coached
the Australia A team superbly and should be proud of the
victories achieved over Canada.
Training Camp
The SOPAC tournament was immediately followed
by a five-day training camp, which also featured three
official friendly games against Canada organised by
Balmain, Cronulla and Drummoyne water polo clubs.
Australia easily accounted for Canada in all three games
with two 10-goal and a three-goal victory, underlining
our continuing dominance over our Commonwealth
opponent.
Thank you to all three clubs for the opportunity to
stage these games and promote international water
polo to the supporters and community. Your support and
hospitality is greatly appreciated.

Volvo Cup
The Aussie Sharks line up at the FINA World Championships in Rome.
Staged on February 24-26, at Hodmezovasarhely,
Hungary, the tournament was contested by four teams
— Australia, Canada, Hungary and the United States of
America.
This was a chance to bring together our overseasbased
players for some much-needed international
competition and experience at a crucial time of the year.
However, the European countries were playing their
World League preliminary rounds throughout the period
from December 2009 until May 2010 on a once-a-month
basis, so they have the luxury of playing regular games,
whereas our World League preliminaries were not until
May 2010, and they would most likely not involve any of
our European-based players due to club commitments.
From this it is obvious how essential these international
opportunities are if we are to keep in touch with the
European nations. Equally obvious is the fact that USA
and Canada sent teams to this tournament for precisely
the same reason as I have outlined for Australia. Both USA
and Canada were able to draw upon their best players
to train beforehand and compete in the tournament, with
the Canadians sending their strongest team possible.
However, despite all our best intentions and plans
for the tournament, little did we know the frustration
and administrative nightmare that this seemingly simple
exercise would create!
With the unavoidable absence of two players in
Thomas Whalan, who is having a break from international
water polo in preparation for the birth of his first child,
and Nic O’Halloran due to injury sustained in the Tom
Hoad Cup in December, it became apparent that we
might need to call upon some Australian-based players
to make the journey to Hungary. This meant that there
would be unavoidable disruption to some of the NWPL
clubs in Australia, as unlike in Europe, we don’t play just
on weekends, and significantly also the players would not
be able to make the short journey to Hungary to play and
then be back for their weekend club fixtures. So it was
decided to invite three players from Australia to join the
European-based players. Based upon the composition
of the players present in Europe, the opportunity was
presented to Aidan Roach (Drummoyne), Daniel Streets
(KFC Breakers) and Joel Swift (Fremantle), to balance
the team and provide the necessary numbers.
While we were able to replace Thomas and Nic, there
was much more difficulty to come, when Barcelona made
it apparent it was reluctant to release two players in
Johnno Cotterill and Richie Campbell. Despite informing
the players and clubs in November 2009 about the
tournament, and the fact that it was going to be held midweek
to accommodate the European national league
fixtures, there was concern from a number of clubs about
the players attending. Most of these concerns were
allayed with the help and cooperation of the Hungarian,
Spanish and Australian federations, and I express my
thanks and gratitude to the clubs and players for their
understanding and cooperation.
Following numerous attempts to have the players
released, and the tournament organisers even changing
the dates and fixtures to accommodate the clubs,
Barcelona still refused to allow the two players to be part
of the national team. This was despite the event being
a LEN-sanctioned tournament and clearly visible on the
international calendar. For Australia, (and I suggest USA
and Canada) it as important as the World League for
the Europeans, but this did not have any influence with
gaining the release of the Barcelona players.
17

18
The circumstances of events has obvious implications
for the future agreement of national squad players
playing in overseas leagues and the lessons learnt from
this will be evident when agreeing to release the players
to play overseas.
The last, completely unavoidable, incident occurred
late on the weekend before the tournament started. Rob
Maitland, who was to captain the national team, injured
his shoulder in the dying minutes of his Spanish League
game while playing for Mediterani, and was unable to
take to the water for the entire week.
While his presence and leadership was still valued,
especially in the game preparation, his role during the
games became that of head video operator. This had
obvious implications on our playing numbers, meaning
we went into each game with two field players on the
bench!
We lost to USA 9-4, Hungary 18-4 and Canada 8-7.
A special mention to the assistance received in the
coaching and managerial department for this tour —
Paul Oberman provided great support in the coaching
assistant role and for the first time we engaged Frank
Otto (ex-German Olympic medallist) as a consultant for
the men’s team.
Frank has agreed to be our European liaison person,
and besides providing the team with the benefit of his
vast wealth and international water polo knowledge
(especially from a European perspective), he will be
another pair of eyes and ears to monitor our overseasbased
contingent of players.
National League
March and April saw the NWPL continue until the
finals series in May. Congratulations to Victorian Tigers
on winning the men’s title with a fine display of attacking
and creative water polo. I was reasonably happy with the
quality of play in the finals series, especially the final few
games where the result was on the line. Many current
and aspiring players put their hand up for selection to the
national squad with impressive individual performances.
National Squad
Following the NWPL finals, the senior squad was
updated. The additions/deletions were based upon the
performances of players in the period January through
until May. This included the home series (SOPAC
international and Canadian games) in Sydney, the Volvo
Cup in February and the NWPL season, including the
finals.
A touring squad for the FINA World League
preliminaries was announced, which comprised mainly
Australian-based players, as most of the European
Aussie Sharks head coach John Fox expresses himself
during a match at the FINA World Championships in
Rome.
players were still participating in finals and were
unavailable.
The squad included five rookie players who were
rewarded for their performances throughout the year —
Mitch Baird, Wade Eames, Tyler Martin, John Hahn and
Mitch Emery. All other players had represented Australia
in overseas competition.
World League Preliminaries
A brief preparatory camp was conducted in Sydney
before we headed off to Japan and China.
The main objective for the two-week tour was to
qualify for the finals. Once this was safely achieved (after
the first week) the intention was then to put the players
through a demanding second week to improve our fitness
base in preparation for the FINA World League Super
Finals and FINA World Cup, and also to assess how they
performed while fatigued.
Overall, the tour was a very rewarding one and,
despite the quality of the opposition not being as high
as what we would be encountering in Europe, we still
played very well to win all 10 games.
The fact that we were able to play under fatigue in
the second week, with players backing up after training
sessions to play international games, highlighted our

superiority and the players’ beliefs in their ability. It
must also be noted that this team was without eight
experienced players who all come back into contention
for the Super Finals and World Cup.
Acknowledgements
My sincere thanks to the NWPL clubs for their ongoing
support to the national program, both through the support
of the players and the ability to work in with the demands
of the international calendar.
Special mention must be made of Jon Harmer, who
once again did a tremendous job in the role of manager.
We are fortunate that Jon is able to dedicate the amount
of time he does to the program and still maintain a
“normal” working life back in Adelaide.
The 2009/10 year saw a number of personnel
changes, not only to the playing group but also within
the staff ranks. Congratulations to Chris Wybrow and
Dalibor Maslan, who were appointed as new coaches for
NSWIS and VIS programs respectively.
Paul Oberman (WAIS), Simon Daley (QAS) and Eddie
Denis (SASI) continue to provide quality leadership and
direction in their respective programs, and again have
been fantastic supporters of the senior program.
John Whitehouse continues to work tirelessly in
support of the men’s program.
Chris Harrison (CEO) has also provided tremendous
support to both me and the national program. Among the
number of significant improvements Chris has instigated
since his appointment has been the establishment of a
high performance committee.
This committee meets on a regular basis to evaluate,
to provide feedback and direction for the program.
Chris also has a fantastic working relationship with
the Australian Sports Commission and the Australian
Olympic Committee, both of whom provide the program
with invaluable financial funding and support from
grassroots water polo through to the international level.
AWPI President Peter Kerr and Peter Montgomery
are great advocates for our sport among the ASC and
Olympic circles.
Andrew Stanford continues to do a good job in his
role as Sports Medicine Coordinator, and in addition to
continually monitoring the players for health and injury
status, he ensures follow-up discussion with each service
provider around Australia and across the world.
Andrew Yanitsas was appointed to the role of Sports
Science Coordinator in March 2010 and has proven to be
a valuable asset with the analysis and coding of games,
compilation of testing data and technical advice.
Other people of note who have made significant
contributions to the program include past players Nathan
Thomas (senior player liaison and technical coaching)
and Trent Franklin (player representative to AWPI and
AOC).
John Fox
Head Coach
➤ Senior Women’s Report
The 2009-10 report will be broken up into two parts
— July 2009 was the end of the International season
culminating in the FINA World Championships in Rome.
December 2009 was the start of our 2010 International
season, which took us through to the FINA World League
Super Finals at the start of July 2010.
World Championship Preparation
We started our final preparation with the Samartzidis
Cup in Athens, but unfortunately illness and injuries did
not allow us to play our strongest team throughout the
tournament. This showed in the inconsistency of our
results but it also did allow for a lot of inexperienced
players to gain valuable international experience against
top-class teams. We lost to Russia 14-3, beat Spain 11-
7, went down to Greece 9-6 and pipped Italy 9-7 for third
place.
We travelled to Budapest for a training camp and two
internationals with Hungary. The first test match saw us
finally play with our top team and once again we came
away with another draw (8-8) to go with the two draws
we had with Hungary in Beijing. However, Hungary was
too strong in the return match (12-11) where we had to
rest our top goalkeeper, Alicia McCormack, and captain
Melissa Rippon.
We then fine-tuned our FINA World Championship
preparation with a training camp at the AIS in Varese,
Italy with China. Rowena Webster and Victoria Brown
also joined the team in Varese after their World University
commitments. We wanted these two players to play in
the WSG to help strengthen the team, plus also allow
them to take more responsibility as senior players.
19

20
FINA World Championships
We arrived in Rome with a brand new team and
only five Olympians backing up from Beijing and seven
players making their FINA World Championship debuts.
This was by far the most changes made to any topranked
team in the world. Our performances leading into
the championships were inconsistent but we did believe
if we played to our potential we could be playing for the
medals and, more importantly, qualifying for the 2010
FINA World Cup, which was being played in Christchurch,
New Zealand. Due to the new qualification which sees
the top team from each continent qualifying and then the
top three from the FINA World Championships, medalling
was the only way for us to qualify as New Zealand had
the Oceania spot as the host.
Our first game was drawn 6-all with Canada after
leading 5-2 in the third quarter and having to score the
equaliser after unanswered Canadian goals.
South Africa was our second game and we were
always in control, finishing with a 23-2 win.
This left us to beat New Zealand by seven goals
to qualify first in our group ahead of Canada. This we
did with a 14-4 victory to qualify automatically for the
quarterfinals.
We then came up against the only European team
that has beaten us in a major competition since the 2004
Olympics — Greece — who defeated hometown favourite
Italy in the cross-overs to advance to the quarters.
Greece plays a style of game that frustrates us in
attack and forces poor options, while also nullifying our
counter-attack through a very controlled offensive game.
Unfortunately, we fell into this trap, losing 4-3. Any
game where you can’t score more than three goals you
certainly don’t deserve to win and thus we were knocked
out of the medal rounds.
This meant we were now playing for pride and were
up against the Spanish in the 5-8 semifinals. We started
Alicia McCormack sizes up a Greek shot at the FINA
World Championships in Rome.
very strongly and led 5-0 in the second quarter. Spain
worked its way back to 5-4 before we went on to win
7-5.
In the play-off for fifth against Olympic champion
the Netherlands, the game was levelled nine times. A
missed penalty in the last quarter saw us go down 12-11
and finish in sixth place.
FINA World Championship Summary
As in 2005, we once again finished sixth the year
after the Olympics and as in 2005 we had to rebuild our
team as we had eight players retire after Beijing.
Unfortunately, our athletes do not see water polo as a
career like they do in other countries and we have a lot of
our players retiring after each Olympics, while the other
countries are being paid handsomely to play in Europe
for clubs and also internationally. This allows them to
maintain strong, experienced teams, especially after the
Olympic Games.
The sixth-placed finish was disappointing, especially
the way we lost the quarterfinal 4-3 to Greece. If we
had won that game we may have had a false sense of
security of where we were and this could have proved
costly in the future. Instead we had to have a thorough
review of our strengths and weaknesses to help us plan
for the lead-up to London 2012.
The following factors were found to be contributors
to our failure:
• Poor individual skills. Not enough skill training
was being done on a daily basis and players were
not looking at improving their ball skills outside of
training.
• More individual and positional training. The need to
work more in small groups while also maximising
the opportunity to train when pool space is easily
accessible.
• Lack of time spent together as a team. This affected
our team dynamics and when it came to the crunch
the senior players were expected to win the games
while the new players sat back and made little
contribution in the pressure situations. I take full
responsibility for this, as I wanted to try and stop
burnout of the five Olympians backing up. While
these players were physically fit and refreshed,
they lacked important match fitness apart from
Bronwen Knox, who spent the European winter
playing in Greece after the Olympics. We decided
to spend more time together by holding four-day
camps during the NWPL and also spending seven
weeks together in the lead-up to the World League
Super Finals, which was our main focus for 2010.

The Aussie Stingers front for a match at the FINA World Championships in Rome.
Institute Challenge
The annual Institute Challenge was held at the AIS
in November and was won by QAS with WAIS second,
NSWIS third, Composite fourth and Victoria fifth. This
year the Composite team was bolstered by the addition
of three USA players and Mieke Cabout (Netherlands
Olympic gold medallist), which made for some close and
entertaining games.
After the Challenge, 21 players were chosen for a
training camp with 13 being selected to tour Canada and
USA.
Canada Cup
A new-look team was selected for the Canada
Cup and USA Holiday Cup tour. This was due to the
unavailability of Kate Gynther (work), Rebecca Rippon
(break), Alicia McCormack and Holly Lincoln-Smith
(shoulder operations). The team included three players
aged under 18 — Zoe Arancini, Isobel Bishop and Kelsey
Wakefield — plus Elise Rossato making her Australian
debut, while Gemma Beadsworth was returning from a
study break.
After playing some very entertaining water polo
throughout the week we went down to the USA in the
final 8-7 with the USA scoring in the final minute to
secure the victory.
We opened the series with an encouraging 8-4 win
over the USA, beat Italy 14-9, Canada 15-8 and Canada
again in the semifinals, 10-9 in overtime.
Holiday Cup
The team continued its improvement and won the
Holiday Cup in impressive style for the third time and the
first since 1999. In the process we drew with the world
champion USA 7-7, defeated the world silver medalilst
Canada 12-6, world bronze medallist Russia 11-9 and
Olympic gold medallist Netherlands 10-5.
Training Camps
We held a seven-day training camp in January (AIS)
before the NWPL and two, four-day training camps in
February (Gold Coast) and March (Sydney). Twenty
athletes attended each camp, but personnel changed
from camp to camp.
Unfortunately, the Commonwealth Championships,
for which we were preparing, were rescheduled from
April until October.
We then held a five-day training camp (AIS) during
the NWPL break before the finals. Twenty-six players
were selected to attend this camp whom we believed
had the potential to be national team members.
FINA World League
After the National League finals, we selected a squad
of 20 athletes to attend a five-day selection camp at the
AIS in Canberra. From this squad we selected 14 players
to compete in the rounds of the FINA World League in
Japan and China.
We qualified top of the Oceania region after defeating
Japan 18-5 and 16-4, Kazakhstan 14-9 and 14-8. In our
two games with China, we played some very entertaining
water polo, but unfortunately in the first game in Japan
we failed to capitalise on our opportunities and paid the
penalty by having an 8-8 draw in regular time, then losing
the match 13-12 in a penalty shootout.
This then put us in a difficult position of having to win
all our games in China to qualify first. This was made
more difficult as we lost Gemma Beadsworth, who had
21

22
Aussie Stinger Holly Lincoln-Smith turns and
shoots against the Netherlands at the FINA World
Championships in Rome.
to go home to finish her university exams. We came out
and played some great water polo to defeat China 10-5
in front of its home crowd.
At the end of the FINA World League rounds we had
four players join us in China to play two friendly tests with
China. We approached these games as training games
and an opportunity to give valuable pool time to the less
experienced players, while also putting pressure on our
more experienced players to try and chase down a lead.
We played six in, six out for as much of the game as
we could and then once China had a four-goal lead we
would then play our top team.
In the first test the Chinese got to a 6-2 lead towards
the end of the third quarter. We fought our way back to
6-6 with three minutes remaining but finished 7-6 down.
The second test was similar and the Chinese went
out to a 8-4 lead midway through the second period. We
closed the gap to 8-6 but five minutes of poor finishing,
which included a missed penalty, led to China winning
10-7.
While it was disappointing to lose these games, I
think the way we approached them was quite valuable
and provided a great way to expose all the athletes to
different pressure. We then stayed on for a three-day
training camp with the Chinese.
Training Camp at Varese, Italy (AIS)
To prepare for the FINA World League Super Finals,
we headed to Varese, Italy with 18 players to train for
four weeks by ourselves. Originally we had planned to
invite Greece or another European team to train with us,
but due to the scheduling of the European World League
rounds, no teams were available. This meant that we
would go into the Super Finals without any International
competition between China and San Diego. This had
never been done previously leading up to a major
competition, but I believed that it could prove beneficial
to us as we could work on the areas of our game that we
needed to improve and not have to worry about what the
other team wants to do while also not allowing teams to
get used to your style of play.
FINA World League Super Finals
We arrived in San Diego, USA and played two half
games against the Netherlands before our first game
against Russia, the World No 3. We got off to a flying
start against Russia, scoring 4-0 in the first five minutes
and built on that to lead 6-1 midway through the second.
Russia worked back to 7-3 but that was the closest it got
and Australia maintained the four-goal buffer to finish a
12-8 winner.
The next game we were up against the World No 1
USA in front of a very parochial crowd and the home
team started strongly to take a 3-1 lead by the end of the
first period. We worked our way back to 3-3 and the USA
either held a one-goal lead or the scores were tied up till
the end of the third when the scores were 8-8.
We finally took the lead early in the fourth but the
USA quickly countered with two goals before we took
the lead for the second time at 11-10 with another two
goals. Mel Rippon should have been awarded a penalty
on a one-on-one swimaway but to everyone’s dismay the
referee called nothing and the USA levelled the game
again through a deflection. With 20 seconds left it looked
like we had scored the winning goal, but to our dismay
we allowed a centre-forward goal to leave the score at
12-12.
The penalty shootout did not fall in our favour and,
after stopping two of their penalties, we failed to score
three times from the line and lost 15-14.
Greece was our next opponent and, in another
scrappy, frustrating match, which is the usual when we
play them, we came away with a 7-5 win. It was not until
the last quarter that we gained a three-goal buffer. We
took 41 shots to Greece’s 24 and we defended eight
from 11 extra-man attempts to allow us to finish second
in our group.
Our quarterfinal opponent was Olympic champion
Netherlands. We started strongly but once again poor
finishing cost us dearly and a 4-2 halftime lead probably
should have been much greater. Our set defence and
extra-man defence was excellent as the girls adjusted
very well to the change of tactics we needed to apply
to limit the damage of their shooting game. We won
comfortably 10-7.
The four semifinalists had all come from our group
and we were up against Russia again for a place in the
final. We started positively but unfortunately could not
convert our opportunities and were behind 4-2 at the
half.

In the third quarter our attack came together and we
tightened our defence to push ahead 5-4 by the end of
the period. We quickly turned that into 8-6 and with two
minutes remaining the Russians grabbed another but we
held on to win 8-7.
In the gold-medal final it was our old foe USA. The
home team started strongly and led 4-2 at halftime.
In the second half we played our natural game and
clawed back to 5-4 down at the end of the third period.
We finally hit the lead with two minutes remaining, but to
our dismay we gave USA the equaliser on the very next
attack. The game went to penalties and unfortunately we
had our fourth shot saved and the USA scored all of its
attempts for a 12-11 victory.
2010 Season Summary
In 2010 we played 22 games, winning 16. We drew
five (losing three in penalty shootout) and lost one.
Of these 22 games, 14 of them were against teams
ranked higher than us in which we lost one in regulation
time and three in penalty shootouts.
As the above results show I believe that we are now
the No 2-ranked team in the world and getting close to
the USA as we took it to the wire twice in the FINA World
League Super Finals in front of its home crowd and were
beaten in penalty shootouts.
In both these games we came from behind at halftime
to put ourselves in a winning position but unfortunately,
costly defensive errors at critical times allowed the USA
to salvage draws and force the games into penalties.
Against all the other teams that we played we lost
one game in a penalty shoot-out.
As identified in our summary after the FINA World
Championships, the need to spend more time together
was justified and this went a long way to our strong
performances and success this year and needs to be
maintained for us to be able to continue.
Working in specific positions and individual sessions
also proved beneficial as not only did our skill level
improve, but also the players’ improvement in these
positions went a long way in helping our success.
At the start of our season we targeted three areas
that we needed to do correctly for us to have a chance of
winning games and if we lost then we could still evaluate
our performance, because maybe the other team was
just better than us. When we achieved at least two of
these, we were successful and when we achieved all
three we won quite comfortably.
The main reason for our success was our extra-man
defence in which we kept most teams to around 30%
plus. Our set defence was consistently strong, only
allowing more than eight goals in five of the 22 games
(regulation time). In those five games we only lost one of
them and that was in a penalty shootout.
We need to continue to work on the above areas
while also looking at improving our understanding of
extra-man attack, shot options and movement. This is
the one area that we can make a big improvement.
Needless to say, improvement in our penalty taking
and stopping wouldn’t go astray.
If you were to say to me at the start of the 2010
preparation, that we would jump from sixth in the world
to second in the space of eight months, I definitely would
have taken this. The challenge is to now keep making
regular improvements to our game, both individually and
as a team, and not to rest on our laurels. If we can do
this then come London we will definitely be in the firing
line for the medals.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people:
• To all the athletes who participated in the program.
Unfortunately some of you were not selected
in certain teams or squads, while others were
rewarded for their performances and dedication.
• Julie Hamill, Jenny Liessmann and Lynne Morrison
for their combined efforts of managing the teams
during the last 12 months.
• Liz Steet, Laura Schwab, James Trotter (physios)
and Grace Bryant (doctor) for their continual
fantastic efforts in keeping the players fit, healthy.
• My assistant and SIS/SAS coaches — Greig
Richardson (VIC), Ryan Moar (NSWIS), Aleks
Osadchuk (QAS), Peter Szilagyi (WAIS), Eddie
Denis (SASI ) and Dalibor Maslan (VIS).
• The Sports Medicine staff working with the SIS/
SAS programs and Andrea Mosler, our Sports
Medicine Coordinator.
Aussie Stingers head coach Greg McFadden in Rome.
23

2010 AWPI Hall of Fame Din
Hall of Famers — William Phillips (representing the late Bill Berge-Phillips) David Neesham, David Woods, Bridgette
Gusterson, Ray Smee and John O’Brien.
NWPL Statistician Doc Wulf with
MC Mike Westdorp.
2009’s leading junior female
Zoe Arancini.
Peter Montgomery with
Grace Bryant Snr.
24
Volunteer par excellence — Jeanette Gunn with
Aussie Stingers head coach Greg McFadden.
Supporters Sam and Robbie Mayer acknowledged by AWPI.

ner, Sydney Olympic Park
Best junior woman for 2008,
Breanna Appel.
Newly appointed Life Members — Tom Hoad, David Woods and Pat Jones.
Absent: Harry Quittner.
The outstanding junior man
for 2009, Jeremy Davie.
The standout female for 2008, Mel Rippon.
Top junior man for 2008, Aaron Younger.
Leading female for 2009,
Bronwen Knox.
25

26
• The Sports Science staff working with the SIS/
SAS programs and Ted Polglaze, our Sport
Science Coordinator, many thanks for doing a
superb job. Also to Sally Clark to come along and
fulfill Ted’s roles and responsibilities beyond our
expectations.
• Debra Waser and the AIS, Wanda Sipa and the
ASC, John Coates and the AOC for their continued
support and help.
• The AIS & SIS/SAS programs support staff for
their day-to-day help in running the programs and
particularly the strength and conditioning coaches
led by Julian Jones; the physiologists led by Ted
Polglaze and Sally Clark; the nutritionists led by
Greg Cox; the psychologists led by Alex Gorman;
the skill acquisition staff led by Adam Gorman
and the performance analysis staff led by Alexis
Lebedew.
• The NWPL coaches, who have been very
supportive and understanding of the national
team’s commitments and the need for the team to
have training camps throughout the season.
• Chris Harrison, John Whitehouse and the AWPI
office for their full support in helping the program
run smoothly.
• AWPI Board for being supportive and understanding
the difficult circumstances that the team goes
through with the changing of so many players after
the Olympics.
• Karen Buffier, my thanks for the tremendous job
she does in the everyday administration of the AIS
program.
Greg McFadden
Head Coach
➤ Junior Women’s Report
European Tour
For the international season of 2009-10, 15 girls
were selected to tour Europe and participate in training
camps in Manchester, Barcelona, Naples and play in a
tournament in Athens (George Kassimatis Cup).
Great Britain
We started our tour in Manchester, training against
Great Britain at the National Training Centre with two
sessions a day for six days, concluding with an official
game on the last day of our stay.
The first half of the game was very even but in the
second half the combination of good defence and strong
counter-attack proved too much for the British, who lost
11-6. This score didn’t reflect the improvement in the
British team that now has a centralised program based
in Manchester, operating from the aquatic centre built
for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Britain is a robust
squad that is working hard, looking for a good result at
the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Spain
The next stop was Barcelona for common training
with the Spanish. We stayed and trained at the Catalan
Institute of Sport for five days, playing games for two
hours twice a day. There were no official games, but the
training games were played with real purpose and all the
players gained plenty of pool time. The Spanish senior
coach attended most sessions and this seemed to add a
bit of intensity to the games. It was also the last training
opportunity before the tournament in Athens, so both
teams were determined to do well. The overall outcome
of these training games was pretty even with Australia
and Spain splitting the wins and losses between them
session to session.
Greece
We flew to Athens to compete in the George Kassimatis
Cup along with the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France and
Greece. Our accommodation was in central Athens but
all the games were played at a new pool in the suburb of
Perama. We had mixed success during this tournament,
losing the first game against the Netherlands 10-7.
In game two against Italy, we played our best game
of the tour. The standard of this game was high with
both teams showing a range of tactics and individual
skills. The scoreline was close until midway through the
last term when Australia scored a crucial time-out goal
that turned the momentum of the game in our favour,
eventually winning 11-7.
In game three against Spain we tried to mix it up using
six in and six out hoping to keep the team fresh for the
cross-over, eventually losing 12-7. Because we finished
second in our group the next game against Greece was
the play-off for third and fourth. In a complete reversal

of form, we played possibly the worst game of the tour,
losing 14-4.
All of the teams in this tournament had been in
centralised training camps preparing for the European
20s’ championship, which was the major event for this
age group for 2009.
Italy
The tour finished with an intensive training camp
in Naples where we had common training twice a day
for seven days against Italy. It was a good way for this
tour to wind up, giving all of the team members a final
opportunity to test themselves individually, refine team
systems and generally check how far they are down the
pathway towards playing at senior-level competition.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Charlene Sommerville, the team
manager; Michael Hart, the referee; Karen Buffier, AIS
administrator; and staff of AWPI. Their support throughout
the tour was invaluable.
Greig Richardson
Coach
➤ Youth Girls’ Report
Selection
The squad for the FINA Junior Women’s World
Championships in Russia was selected in early 2009
after the 20 & Under national championships and the
National Water Polo League.
Training Camp
We had a training camp in May and a few selected
players were not available due to sickness or injury. At this
camp we worked on skills and tactics in the mornings and
played games with the New Zealand 18& Under team in
the evenings. The skill level was very poor, so we had to
spend more time to improve it than had been scheduled,
but was not enough to reach my expectation. The fitness
level of the girls was below that of the previous camp.
The players before this camp could not train enough
with their clubs – after the 18 & under nationals the clubs
were doing almost nothing and only a few had access to
training with NTCs. Taryn Woods and Greig Richardson
assisted me with the training.
Pythia Cup, Itea, Greece
We started our tour in Greece at the Pythia Cup in
July. We beat Greece 15-8 in the opener, lost to Italy 10-
8, beat the Netherlands 12-7 and Spain 11-8 for second
place behind Italy.
Ashleigh Southern was named Most Valuable Player
and was the tournament’s leading goal-scorer. We
played press most of the time to see who would be the
best option for centre back at the world championships.
Test Match in Italy
This game attracted 400 spectators and was televised
locally. We won 11-4 and it was the best performance on
tour despite some illness to key players. Nine players
scored and the Italians had trouble finding a way through
our defence.
At the training camp in Italy we trained two hours
in the mornings by ourselves and played games in the
evenings. We had the opportunity to use a gym every
second day as well. We played six games, including
the official test match. We won four, drew one and lost
one. The main focus of this camp was the extra-defence,
blocking and six-on-five attacks. We played a three-back
zone most of the time, except the official test when we
played our full tactics with great success.
Test Series with Germany
We travelled to Heidelberg for a series with Germany,
winning 22-8, 27-7, 27-11 and 24-7. We had two trainings
per day, with the first hour alone and the second hour
a game against Germany. The main focus in this camp
was six-on-six attacks and to improve our counter-attack.
After Taryn Woods arrived we selected and named the
13 for the FINA World Championships to be announced
later in Hungary.
Tournament of Olympic Hopes, Hungary
We competed in Eger at the unofficial Tournament
of Olympic Hopes, losing 10-8 to Hungary 20 & Under,
defeating a United States of America combined university
team 18-10, beating Great Britain 20 & Under 13-9,
drawing 10-all with Hungary 18 & Under and downing
Canada Juniors 9-7.
The final 13 for the FINA World Championships was
named after the semifinal on Saturday evening and the
three non-selected girls travelled home with the senior
women’s team on the Monday.
The preparation was perfect. We had the opportunity
27

28
The Aussie girls line up at the junior women’s FINA World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in August.
to play and train as much I wanted. Our six-on-six attack
and defence improved a lot and our extra-man defence
and attack became well organised.
The fitness level dropped due to a lot of illness during
the tour. Only two players did not get sick. All the others
missed several trainings for about two-five days each.
FINA World Championships
We travelled in Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia for the
FINA World Championships.
We beat Spain 11-9 in the opener, pipped Italy 8-7
and thumped Kazakhstan 28-4 to finish top of our group,
going directly to the quarterfinals. We came up against
the USA and lost 9-5 after not being given any warm-up
time in front of goal. After missing the medal round we
played Canada and lost 4-3, putting us into the play-off
for 7th & 8th. We beat Spain again, this time 11-6.
Summary
During the last two years I have worked with the girls,
the biggest worry was the lack of a top-class centre back.
In world championships the centre backs become the
best players on the team. Our defence was great and our
goalies are outstanding at that age. We had great drivers
as well. The centre forwards struggled with illness and
injury, proving a major hurdle.
The standard of the competition was high. About
10 teams were good enough to play close games with
other teams. Russia won, but I don’t think it could win
if the competition was held anywhere else in the world,
as it had six players young enough to return to the 18 &
Under worlds next time.
We performed below expectation and with a better
attitude we should have won a medal.
Acknowledgements
I wish to say thank you to Taryn Woods, Annie Hayes,
Charlene Sommerville and all of our supporters.
Peter Szilagyi
Coach
➤ Athletes’ Commission Report
The Athletes’ Commission has in the past 12 months
provided an active voice of the athletes in our sport to the
AWPI Board and its executive staff.
The current Athletes’ Commission was elected and
formed after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The
Commission comprises Nikita Cuffe (2004 & 2008
Olympian), Bronwen Knox (2008 Olympian), Toby
Jenkins (2004 Olympian), Thomas Whalan (2000, 2004
& 2008 Olympian) and Trent Franklin (2004 & 2008
Olympian).
The commissioners’ roles as outlined in the charter
are to:
• Advise the board of AWPI on any matters relating to
water polo, which impact on water polo athletes;

• Represent the Athletes on AWPI’s Board through
the Athletes’ Commission chairman, who is a
voting member of the Board;
• Nominate representatives from among their
members to represent Australian water polo
athletes on AWPI as requested from time to time;
• Nominate athletes for election by ballot to
the Australian Olympic Committee Athletes’
Commission;
• Provide leadership and direction on matters that
directly relate to water polo athletes.
In the last year we have worked hard to review and
recommend to the Board the following:
NWPL Transfer Payment
We have been in discussions with both the male
and female national senior teams regarding this issue.
The feedback we received was that the concept of a
player transfer payment or fee would be detrimental to
players’ abilities to play at the most beneficial club for
their continued development and success and also that
such a fee was not justified in the amateur environment
of clubs in the Australian National Water Polo League.
We have been in discussion with members of the NWPL
to convey to them this view. To date there has been no
implementation of the player transfer payment and we
will continue our discussions with the relevant parties.
Direct Athlete Support (DAS)
The issue of Direct Athlete Support for our national
team members is an ongoing discussion with the High
Performance Committee. This is of critical importance
for our elite athletes in order to assist in preparation
and participation in the national team and also provide
support to retain senior members of the national teams.
Moving towards a transparent and quantitative method
has been put forward to the AWPI Board. Direct Athlete
Support is by no means a system of player payments
but rather a defraying of costs that our athletes have in
committing to national team requirements, as well as the
work that they give up in order to represent Australia at
the highest level.
National Team Induction
Playing for Australia at the highest level in the sport is
a dream of any young sportsperson in any sport. In higher
profile sports such as cricket and swimming, special
significance is given to players when they first make their
first national senior team. We have been working on an
induction ceremony and acknowledgement in order to
celebrate this occasion. This is seen as an important
step in giving our players a true sense of what it means
to represent Australia in water polo and the traditions
and past achievements that they carry as a legacy.
Athletes Encouraged
The Athletes’ Commission encourages any elite
athletes to contact us with any issues, concerns or ideas
they might have relating to the sport.
We look forward to working with Australian Water
Polo Inc and its athletes to further develop our sport on
a domestic and international stage during the coming
year.
Trent Franklin
Athletes’ Commission Chairman
➤ Referees’ Commission Report
The Commission has continued to provide
recommendations to the AWPI Board on referees to be
included on the FINA List and in relation to appointments
to international tournaments. This year has also seen
the Commission liaise with national senior coaches
to provide referees for NTC tournaments and national
training camps.
2010 FINA Referees: Michael Hart, Noel Harrod,
Daniel Flahive, Nicola Johnson, Nick Hodgers, Andrew
Carney, Rowan Woodburn (Rotation with Daniel
Bartels).
Rotation Policy
The Commission decided to include a rotation policy
to encourage National Water Polo League referees to
aspire to international level.
Rotating one referee from the FINA List for 12 months
allows the Commission to trial suitable referees.
The associated benefits are:
• We can determine whether a new referee is
capable of handling the rigours of International
officiating before adding them permanently to the
list.
• It gives more referees the opportunity to experience
officiating at the highest level.
29

• They can use this additional experience in the
National League, national championships and
local competition.
• Provides us with a group of experienced referees
to add to the FINA List after a retirement or dropoff
in form.
It would be helpful if we could receive FINA game
assessments from FINA Delegates so that we can assess
the candidates’ suitability for permanent inclusion.
The current rotation model stipulates that we have
four senior referees who aren’t rotated. This provides
stability in the eyes of FINA, which leaves three referees
to be rotated each year.
For season 2010, Daniel Bartels graciously accepted
the 12- month rotation from the List and we thank him for
his understanding on this first occurrence.
National Water Polo League
We plan to implement more stringent referee
assessments during 2011. This will assist with due
process in managing referee expectations, finals
selection, FINA List selection and resolving appeals if a
referee is removed from the NWPL list.
We want to ensure that we develop referees each
season and having appropriately qualified delegates is
an important aspect of the assessment and development
process.
We are contacting NWPL members to remind them
that a delegate is a requirement for all clubs at all home
games. Importantly we are actively talking to respected
former national and NWPL players and coaches in the
hope that they will see the benefit in genuine referee
development.
If we can recruit delegates who understand that their
role is to be constructive and mentoring, then we will
have more success with referee development.
We will also ask the delegates to assess each referee
so that we have documented comments that can be
used to substantiate our decisions relevant to further
selection.
We also hope that coaches are prepared to provide
their home delegate with a copy of the game video, if
appropriate. Many coaches understand the benefit of
referee development, therefore we would be happy for
them to add constructive comments for the delegate’s
use.
Commission Retirement
Phillip Bower retired to concentrate on his NWPL
coaching.
Potential Budget
We understand that funds are limited and that we
undertake our role without a budget. Can you consider
the following initiatives
• We would like to send Commission delegates on
a limited basis to other States to assess referees
(NWPL games) and assist local delegates in their
role. As NWPL delegates will play an important
role, we need to support them and ensure they are
providing a consistent message to referees.
• We would like to have additional delegates attend
the NWPL Finals Series. They can assist in referee
assessments and table management. This will be a
reward for their contribution and allow us to re-state
the message we give each referee. Consistency
of decisions is critical to the game; therefore each
delegate needs to impart the same message.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank John Whitehouse, Chris
Harrison and Peter Hobday for their assistance in 2010
and look forward to the 2010-2011 season.
Michael McNeill
Referees’ Commission Chairman
30
Danny Flahive controlling the FINA World Championships
men’s bronze-medal game between Croatia and the
United States of America in Rome in July 2009.

National Championships Results 2009-10
Men’s National League
February-May, 2010, Finals Sydney
1. Victorian Tigers
2. Drummoyne Devils
3. UNSW Wests Magpies
4. Fremantle Mariners
5. KFC Queensland Breakers
6. Sydney University Lions
7. Balmain Tigers
8. VICI Brisbane Barracudas
9. Hunter Hurricanes
10. Fyfe Adelaide Jets
11. UWA Torpedoes
12. Sealevel Cronulla Sharks
Women’s National League
February-May 2010, Finals Sydney
1. VICI Brisbane Barracudas
2. KFC Queensland Breakers
3. Longmont Fremantle Marlins
4. Sealevel Cronulla Sharks
5. Balmain Tigers
6. Victorian Tigers
7. Drummoyne Devils
8. UNSW Killer Whales
9. Sydney University Lions
10. Fyfe Adelaide Jets
11. Hunter Hurricanes
12. UWA Torpedoes
40
18 Years & Under Boys
Perth, January 2010
1. New South Wales Blues
2. Western Australia Gold
3. Victoria
4. Queensland Maroon
5. New South Wales Waratahs
6. Queensland White
7. Western Australia Black
8. South Australia
16 Years & Under Boys
Brisbane, September-October 2009
1. Melville Sharks (WA)
2. Cronulla Black (NSW)
3. UNSW Wests Magpies (NSW)
4. Adelaide Jets (SA)
5. Melbourne Collegians (VIC)
6. Alstonville (NSW)
7. Hunter Hurricanes (NSW)
8. Brisbane Barracudas (QLD)
9. KFC Queensland Breakers (QLD)
10. Drummoyne (NSW)
11.= Sydney University (NSW)
11.= Richmond (VIC)
13. City Beach (WA)
14. Tasmania (TAS)
15. Sydney Northern Beaches (NSW)
16. Queensland Country (QLD)
17. Cronulla B (NSW)
18. Melville Sharks (WA)
19. Nordek (ACT)
18 Years & Under Girls
Perth, January 2010
1. New South Wales Blues
2. Western Australia Gold
3. Queensland Maroon
4. New South Wales Waratahs
5. Queensland White
6. South Australia
7. Western Australia Black
8. Victoria
16 Years & Under Girls
Brisbane, September-October 2009
1. Cronulla White (NSW)
2. Sydney Northern Beaches (NSW)
3. Dolphins White (WA)
4. Drummoyne Red (NSW)
5. Sunshine Coast (QLD)
6. Brisbane Barracudas (QLD)
7. Melville (WA)
8. Monash University (VIC)
9. Hunter Hurricanes (NSW)
10. UNSW Killer Whales Yellow (NSW)
11. Sydney University (NSW)
12. Cronulla Blue (NSW)
13. All Hallows (QLD)
14. Brisbane Girls’ Grammar (QLD)
15. Adelaide United (SA)
16. KFC Queensland Breakers (QLD)
17.= Essendon (VIC)
17.= Cronulla Grey (NSW)
19. Dolphins Blue (WA)
20. Drummoyne Black (NSW)
21. Tasmania (TAS)
22. UNSW Killer Whales Black (NSW)
23. Queensland Country (QLD)
24. Nordek (ACT)

14 Years & Under Boys
Brisbane, April 2010
1. Melville Sharks (WA)
2. Cronulla (NSW)
3. Drummoyne (NSW)
4. KFC Queensland Breakers A (QLD)
5. Sunshine Coast (QLD)
6. Hunter Hurricanes (NSW)
7. Tugun-Barracudas (QLD)
8. Melbourne Collegians (VIC)
9. River City (QLD)
10. City Beach Bears (WA)
11. UNSW Wests Magpies (NSW)
12. KFC Queensland Breakers B (QLD)
13. Sydney University (NSW)
14. Alstonville (NSW)
15. Tasmania (TAS)
14 Years & Under Girls
Brisbane, April 2010
1. Hunter Hurricanes (NSW)
2. All Hallows (QLD)
3. Cronulla A (NSW)
4. Melville (WA)
5. Dolphins White (WA)
6. Stuartholme (QLD)
7. Sydney Northern Beaches (NSW)
8. Drummoyne (NSW)
9. River City (QLD)
10. Melbourne Collegians (VIC)
11. Dolphins Blue (WA)
12. City Beach Bears (WA)
13. City Beach Reds (WA)
14. Cronulla Black (NSW)
15. Tasmania (TAS)
Country Men
Albury, April 2010
1. Australian Capital Territory
2. New South Wales
3. Victoria
4. Queensland
5. Western Australia
6. Australian Defence Force
National Teams & Results 2009-10
Senior Men
European Tour, July, 2009:
Sean Boyd, Nathan Cargill, Joel Dennerley, Chris Dyson, Rhys
Howden, Stephen Lewis, Grant Richardson, Sam Robertson,
James Stanton, Thomas Whalan (C), David Will, Daniel Young.
Head coach: John Fox. Manager: Jon Harmer. Referee: Danny
Flahive.
Friendly Internationals, Germany, July, 2009:
Match 1, Duisberg: Germany 8 Australia 4 (S Lewis, D Will, D
Young, T Whalan).
Match 2, Bocholt: Germany 10 Australia 5 (G Richardson 2, N
Cargill, T Whalan, D Will).
Unicum Cup, Budapest, Hungary, July, 2009:
Day 1: Hungary 9 Australia 6 (T Whalan 3, C Dyson 2, G
Richardson).
Day 2: Germany 10 Australia 7 (T Whalan 3, D Will, R Howden,
S Boyd, C Dyson).
Day 3: Serbia 12 Australia 6 (T Whalan 2, G Richardson, S
Robertson, D Young, R Howden).
Final points: Serbia 6, Hungary 4, Germany 2, Australia 0.
Friendly International, Gyongyos, Hungary, July, 2009:
Hungary 13 Australia 7 (T Whalan, A Martin 2, N O’Halloran, R
Country Women
Albury, April 2010
1. New South Wales
2. Australian Defence Force
3. Queensland
4. Victoria
5. Queensland B
6. Western Australia
Campbell, T Cleland).
XIII FINA World Championships, Rome, Italy, July, 2009:
Sean Boyd, Richard Campbell, Tim Cleland, John Cotterill, Robert
Maitland, Anthony Martin, William Miller, Nic O’Halloran, Rhys
Howden, Luke Quinlivan, Grant Richardson, James Stanton,
Thomas Whalan (c). Head coach: John Fox. Manager: Jon
Harmer. Assistant Coach: Mark Hubbard. Doctor: Grace Bryant.
Physiotherapist: Andrew Stanford. Referee: Danny Flahive.
Day 2: Australia 14 (T Whalan 4, R Maitland 3, J Cotterill, R
Howden 2, T Cleland, N O’Halloran, A Martin) Kazakhstan 4.
Day 4: Spain 13 Australia 10 (T Whalan 3, G Richardson 2, N
O’Halloran, R Maitland A Martin, J Cotterill, S Boyd).
Day 6: Australia 8 (T Whalan, Cotterill 3, R Maitland R Campbell)
Serbia 8.
Final points: Spain 6, Serbia 3, Australia 3, Kazakhstan 0.
Second round: Romania 7 Australia 5 (R Campbell, T Whalan
2, A Martin).
Semifinals round 9-12: Australia 8 (R Campbell 3, B Miller 2, J
Cotterill, G Richardson, T Whalan) Italy 6.
Day 12: For 9th & 10th: Montenegro 8 Australia 7 (R Campbell 2,
T Cleland, N O’Halloran, A Martin, T Whalan, W Miller).
Final placings: Serbia, Spain, Croatia, USA, Hungary, Germany,
Romania, Canada, Montenegro, Australia, Italy, China, Brazil,
Macedonia, Kazakhstan, South Africa.
41

42
SOPAC International, Sydney, Australia, January, 2010:
Jamie Beadsworth, Richard Campbell, Tim Cleland, John Cotterill,
Chris Dyson, John Hahn, Rhys Howden, Sam McGregor, Robert
Maitland, Anthony Martin, Billy Miller, James Stanton, David
Will. Head Coach: John Fox. Assistant Coach: Paul Oberman.
Manager: Jon Harmer. Referee: Daniel Flahive.
Day 1: Australia A 9 (A Younger 3, D Streets 2, A Roach, D Young,
B Edwards, J Gilchrist) Canada 5, Australia 8 (A Martin 2, C Dyson,
R Maitland, R Campbell, B Miller, R Howden, J Cotterill) Vasas 8,
Vasas 10 Australia A 8 (A Roach 3, S Cody, D Streets, A Younger,
A Polivka, J Swift), Australia 16 (J Cotterill 5, R Campbell 4, J
Beadsworth 3, C Dyson 2, A Martin, R Howden) Canada 6.
Day 2: Australia 13 (J Beadsworth 4, S McGregor 3, T Cleland 2,
R Maitland, A Martin, J Cotterill, B Miller) Australia A 4 (A Roach
2, M Baird, S Cody).
Final points: Australia 5, Vasas 5, Australia A 2, Canada 0.
Gold medal: Australia 11 (S McGregor 4, R Campbell 3, B Miller,
T Cleland, C Dyson, D Will) Vasas 6. Bronze medal: Australia A
10 (D Young 4, A Younger 2, A Polivka, D Streets, J Gilchrist, A
Roach) Canada 7.
Final placings: Australia, Vasas, Australia A, Canada.
Friendly International, Sydney, Australia, January, 2010:
Mitchell Baird, James Clarke, Tim Cleland, Steven Cody, John
Hahn, Rhys Howden, Sam McGregor, Billy Miller, Aidan Roach,
Daniel Streets, Joel Swift, Daniel Young, Aaron Younger, Gavin
Woods. Head Coach: John Fox. Assistant Coach: Paul Oberman.
Manager: Jon Harmer.
Australia 14 (S McGregor 4, M Baird, R Howden, A Younger 2, S
Cody, D Young, B Miller, J Swift) Canada 4.
International Series, Sydney, Australia, January, 2010:
Mitchell Baird, Chris Batty, Nathan Cargill, James Clarke, Tim
Cleland, Steven Cody, John Hahn, Rhys Howden, Sam McGregor,
Billy Miller, Aidan Roach, Daniel Streets, Joel Swift, Daniel Young,
Aaron Younger, Gavin Woods, Carl Zvekan. Head Coach: John
Fox. Manager: Jon Harmer.
Match 1: Australia 10 (T Cleland 3, A Younger, R Howden 2, S
Cody, S McGregor, D Young) Canada 7.
Match 2: Australia 15 (T Cleland, J Swift 3, M Baird, R Howden,
D Young 2, A Younger, S McGregor, B Miller) Canada 5.
Volvo Cup, Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary, February, 2010:
Nathan Cargill, Chris Dyson, Joel Dennerley, Jarrod Gilchrist,
Anthony Martin, Luke Quinlivan, Aidan Roach, Daniel Streets,
Joel Swift, David Will. Head Coach: John Fox.
Day 1: USA 9 Australia 4 (A Martin, J Swift 2), Hungary 18 Australia
4 (C Dyson, A Martin, J Swift, J Gilchrist).
Day 2: Canada 8 Australia 7 (C Dyson, J Swift 2, A Martin, J
Gilchrist, A Roach).
Final placings: Hungary, USA, Canada, Australia.
FINA World League, Asia-Oceania Zone, Osaka, Japan and
Tianjin, China, May, 2010:
Mitchell Baird, Tim Cleland, Steven Cody, Joel Dennerley,
Wade Eames, Mitchell Emery, John Hahn, Rhys Howden, Sam
McGregor, Tyler Martin, Billy Miller, Luke Quinlivan, Aidan Roach,
Joel Swift, Aaron Younger. Head Coach: John Fox. Assistant
Coach: Simon Daley. Manager: Jon Harmer. Referee: Danny
Flahive.
Round 1, Osaka, Japan, May, 2010:
Day 1: Australia 16 (S McGregor 5, A Younger 4, S Cody, B Miller
2, R Howden, A Roach, J Swift) Japan 11.
Day 2: Australia 10 (B Miller 3, S Cody, A Younger 2, M Emery, R
Howden, A Roach) Kazakhstan 5.
Day 3: Australia 23 (A Younger 5, T Martin 3, T Cleland, S Cody,
S McGregor, M Emery, J Swift, D Lawrence 2, B Miller, W Eames,
R Howden) Iran 1.
Day 4: Australia 15 (J Swift 4, S McGregor 3, M Baird, A Roach,
A Younger 2, B Miller, R Howden) China 4.
Day 5: Australia 17 (M Baird 3, W Eames, S McGregor, J Swift,
A Younger, D Lawrence, A Roach 2, M Emery, S Cody) New
Zealand 3.
Progress points: Australia 15, China 12, Japan 9, Kazakhstan 6,
New Zealand 3, Iran 0.
Round 2, Tianjin, China, May, 2010:
Day 1: Australia 9 (A Younger 3, T Martin, S Cody 2, S McGregor,
W Eames) Japan 8.
Day 2: Australia 14 (A Roach 4, D Lawrence 3, R Howden 2,
W Eames, M Emery, T Martin, S McGregor, A Younger) New
Zealand 4.
Day 3: Australia 11 (R Howden, S McGregor 3, B Miller, J Swift
2, A Younger) Kazakhstan 7.
Day 4: Australia 23 (A Roach, A Younger 4, M Baird, T Martin 3,
S Cody, D Lawrence, J Swift 2, W Eames, M Emery, B Miller)
Iran 3.
Day 5: Australia 10 (S McGregor 4, A Younger 2, M Baird, R
Howden, D Lawrence, J Swift) China 6.
Final points: Australia 30, China 24, Kazakhstan 15, Japan 15,
New Zealand 6, Iran 0.
Students
World Student Games, Belgrade, Serbia, July, 2009:
Richie Campbell, Stephen Cody, Johnno Cotterill, Jarrod
Gilchrist, John Hahn, Rob Maitland (C), Anthony Martin, Billy
Miller, Nic O’Halloran, Luke Quinlivan, Aidan Roach, Joel Swift,
Aaron Younger. Head coach: Paul Oberman. Manager: Jon
Sieben. Referee: Michael Hart.
Day 2 (First men’s day): Australia 20 (R Maitland, J Cotterill 3,
S Cody, A Martin, A Younger, J Swift, A Roach 2, R Campbell, N
O’Halloran, J Gilchrist, B Miller) Canada 0.
Day 3: Australia 16 (R Campbell, J Gilchrist 4, A Younger, N
O’Halloran 2, R Maitland, J Swift, B Miller, J Cotterill) Montenegro
6.
Day 4: Australia 7 (S Cody, R Maitland 2, A Younger, J Swift, B
Miller) Greece 5.
Final points: Australia 6, Greece 4, Montenegro 2, Canada 0.
Day 8: Quarterfinals: Australia 8 (R Campbell, A Martin 2, S
Cody, N O’Halloran, A Younger, B Miller) USA 4.

Day 10: Semifinals 1-4: Australia 7 (R Maitland 3, A Martin 2, A
Younger, B Miller) Serbia 6.
Day 12: Play-offs: For 1st & 2nd: Australia 6 (A Younger 2, R
Campbell, R Maitland, A Martin, B Miller) Croatia 4.
Final placings: Australia, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Hungary,
USA, Russia, Italy, Spain, Japan, France, Montenegro, Canada,
Poland, Mexico, China.
Senior Women
Pre-World Championship Tour, June-July, 2009:
Zoe Arancini, Danielle Bower, Jemma Dessauvagie, Kate
Gynther, Bronwen Knox, Holly Lincoln-Smith, Alicia McCormack,
Kate Miller, Jane Moran, Melissa Rippon, Rebecca Rippon,
Glencora Ralph, Sophie Smith, Nicola Zagame. Head Coach:
Greg McFadden. Assistant Coaches: Ryan Moar, Greig
Richardson. Manager: Julie Hamill. Physiotherapist: Elizabeth
Steet. Doctor: Grace Bryant. Referee: Noel Harrod.
Samartzidis Cup, Athens, Greece, July, 2009:
Day 1: Russia 14 Australia 3 (H Lincoln-Smith, B Knox, N
Zagame).
Day 2: Australia 11 (K Gynther 3, N Zagame 2, H Lincoln-Smith,
G Ralph, S Smith, M Rippon, B Knox) Spain 7, Greece 9 Australia
6 (K Gynther 2, N Zagame, H Lincoln-Smith, J Moran, B Knox).
Day 3: Australia 9 (R Rippon, N Zagame 2, H Lincoln-Smith, J
Moran, B Knox, K Gynther, Z Arancini) Italy 7.
Final placings: Russia, Greece, Australia, Italy, Spain.
International Series, Budapest and Vac, Hungary, July,
2009:
Match 1, Budapest: Hungary 8 Australia 8 (B Knox, K Gynther,
M Rippon 2, S Smith, R Rippon).
Match 2, Vac: Hungary 12 Australia 11 (K Gynther 3, H Lincoln-
Smith, S Smith 2, R Rippon, J Moran, J Dessauvagie, M
Rippon).
XIII FINA World Championships, Rome, Italy, July, 2009:
Jemma Dessauvagie, Kate Gynther, Bronwen Knox, Holly Lincoln-
Smith, Alicia McCormack, Jane Moran, Melissa Rippon, Rebecca
Rippon, Glencora Ralph, Sophie Smith, Nicola Zagame. Head
Coach: Greg McFadden. Assistant Coaches: Ryan Moar, Greig
Richardson. Manager: Julie Hamill. Physiotherapist: Elizabeth
Steet. Doctor: Grace Bryant. Referee: Danny Flahive.
Day 1: Australia 6 (R Webster 2, H Lincoln-Smith, K Gynther, M
Rippon, J Moran) Canada 6.
Day 3: Australia 23 (B Knox, N Zagame 5, R Webster 4, H
Lincoln-Smith, J Moran 3, R Rippon, K Gynther, G Ralph) South
Africa 2.
Day 5: Australia 14 (R Rippon, B Knox, R Webster 3, K Gynther,
M Rippon 2, J Moran) New Zealand 4.
Final points: Australia 5, Canada 3, New Zealand 2, South Africa
0.
Day 9: Quarterfinals: Greece 4 Australia 3 (K Gynther 2, B
Knox).
Day 11: Places 5-8 semifinal: Australia 7 (J Moran 2, S Smith, R
Rippon, B Knox, R Webster, M Rippon) Spain 6.
Day 13: For 5th & 6th: Netherlands 12 Australia 11 (B Knox
4, H Lincoln-Smith, K Gynther 2, G Ralph, J Dessauvagie, M
Rippon).
Final placings: USA, Canada, Russia, Greece, Netherlands,
Australia, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Germany, China, New Zealand,
Brazil, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Africa.
North American Tour, Canada Cup, Montreal, Canada &
Holiday Cup, Newport Beach, USA, December, 2009:
Zoe Arancini, Gemma Beadsworth, Isobel Bishop, Victoria Brown,
Jemma Dessauvagie, Gaby Domanic, Bronwen Knox, Glencora
Ralph (Holiday Cup only), Melissa Rippon, Elise Rossato, Sophie
Smith, Kelsey Wakefield, Rowena Webster, Nicola Zagame.
Head Coach: Greg McFadden. Assistant Coaches: Ryan Moar,
Aleks Osadchuk. Manager: Alexandra Gorman. Physiotherapist:
Elizabeth Steet. Referee: Andrew Carney
Canada Cup, Montreal, Canada, December 2009:
Day 1: Australia 8 (B Knox 4, G Beadsworth 2, Z Arancini, N
Zagame) USA 4.
Day 2: Australia 14 (G Beadsworth 4, B Knox, R Webster 3, G
Domanic 2, Z Arancini, N Zagame) Italy 9.
Day 3: Australia 15 (B Knox 4, R Webster, N Zagame 3, I Bishop,
M Rippon 2, E Rossato) Canada 8.
Final points: Australia 6, USA 4, Italy 2, Canada 0.
Day 4: Semifinals: Australia 10 (G Domanic, R Webster, J
Dessauvagie 2, G Beadsworth, B Knox, I Bishop, N Zagame)
Canada 9 in overtime (FT: 9-9).
Day 5: Gold medal: USA 8 Australia 7 (R Webster, N Zagame 2,
G Beadsworth, B Knox, M Rippon).
Final placings: USA, Australia, Canada, Italy.
Holiday Cup, Newport Beach, USA, December, 2009:
Day 1: Australia 8 (B Knox 3, G Beadsworth 2, R Webster, M
Rippon, N Zagame) Italy 4.
Day 2: Australia 12 (G Ralph 4, B Knox, R Webster, M Rippon 2,
N Zagame, G Domanic) Canada 6.
Day 3: Australia 10 (B Knox 6, G Beadsworth 2, I Bishop, N
Zagame) Netherlands 5.
Day 4: USA 7 Australia 7 (G Beadsworth 3, B Knox, N Zagame
2).
Day 5: Australia 11 (B Knox 4, G Beadsworth, G Ralph 2, E
Rossato, R Webster, N Zagame) Russia 9.
Final points/placings: Australia 9, USA 7, Canada 5, Russia 4,
Netherlands 3, Italy 2.
FINA World League, Asia-Oceania Zone, Osaka, Japan and
Tianjin, China, May, 2010:
Zoe Arancini, Gemma Beadsworth, Isobel Bishop, Alicia
Brightwell, Victoria Brown, Jemma Dessauvagie, Bronwen Knox
(C), Jane Moran, Glencora Ralph, Melissa Rippon, Sophie Smith,
Kelsey Wakefield, Rowena Webster, Nicola Zagame. Head
Coach: Greg McFadden. Manager: Jenny Liessmann. Referee:
Nicola Johnson.
Round 1, Osaka, Japan, May, 2010:
Day 1: Australia 17 (S Smith 3, A Brightwell, G Beadsworth, I
43

Bishop, R Webster, N Zagame 2, B Knox, G Ralph, J Dessauvagie,
Z Arancini) Japan 5.
Day 2: Australia 14 (B Knox 6, R Webster 3, S Smith, M Rippon
2, G Ralph) Kazakhstan 9.
Day 3: China 13 Australia 12 (G Beadsworth, B Knox 4, G Ralph,
R Webster, J Dessauvagie, J Moran) in penalty shootout (FT:
8-8).
Progress points: China 8, Australia 7, Kazakhstan 2, Japan 1.
Round 2, Tianjin, China, May, 2010:
Day 1: Australia 10 (M Rippon 3, J Moran, B Knox, G Ralph 2,
N Zagame) China 5.
Day 2: Australia 14 (R Webster 6, B Knox 4, J Moran 2, S Smith,
M Rippon) Kazakhstan 8.
Day 3: Australia 16 (R Webster 6, B Knox 4, J Moran 2, S Smith,
M Rippon) Japan 4.
Final points: Australia 16, China 14, Kazakhstan 5, Japan 1.
Friendly Series with China, Tianjin, China, May, 2010:
Zoe Arancini, Lea Barta, Isobel Bishop, Alicia Brightwell, Victoria
Brown, Jemma Dessauvagie, Keesja Gofers, Bronwen Knox (C),
Jane Moran, Glencora Ralph, Sophie Ricketts, Melissa Rippon
Sophie Smith, Nanda Stoltz, Kelsey Wakefield, Rowena Webster,
Nicola Zagame. Head Coach: Greg McFadden. Manager: Jenny
Liessmann.
Day 1: China 7 Australia 6 (Z Arancini 2, S Smith, B Knox, G
Ralph, N Zagame).
Day 2: China 10 Australia 7 (B Knox 3, N Zagame 2, I Bishop, J
Dessauvagie).
FINA World League Super Finals, San Diego, USA, June-
July:
Zoe Arancini, Gemma Beadsworth, Alicia Brightwell, Victoria
Brown, Jemma Dessauvagie, Keesja Gofers, Bronwen Knox (C),
Jane Moran, Glencora Ralph, Melissa Rippon, Sophie Smith,
Kelsey Wakefield, Rowena Webster, Nicola Zagame. Head
Coach: Greg McFadden. Assistant Coach: Greig Richardson.
Manager: Jenny Liessmann. Physiotherapist: Liz Steet. Referee:
Noel Harrod.
Day 1: Australia 12 (J Moran 3, B Knox, R Webster 2, G
Beadsworth, G Ralph, J Dessauvagie, M Rippon, N Zagame)
Russia 8.
Day 2: USA 15 Australia 14 (G Ralph 5, B Knox, G Beadsworth
3, N Zagame, M Rippon, R Webster) in penalty shootout (FT:
12-12. Pens: 3-2).
Day 3: Group B: Australia 7 (R Webster 4, G Ralph, B Knox, M
Rippon) Greece 4.
Final points: USA 8, Australia 7, Greece 2, Russia 1.
Day 4: Quarterfinal: Australia 10 (G Ralph 3, N Zagame 2, B Knox,
G Beadsworth, Z Arancini, R Webster, J Moran) Netherlands 7.
Day 5: 1-4 group semifinal: Australia 8 (B Knox, R Webster 2, G
Beadsworth, S Smith, G Ralph, N Zagame) Russia 7.
Day 6: 1st & 2nd: USA 12 Australia 11 (B Knox 4, G Beadsworth,
G Ralph 2, S Smith, R Webster, A Brightwell) in penalty shootout
(FT: 7-7. Pens: 5-4).
Final placings: USA, Australia, Greece, Russia, China, Hungary,
Netherlands, Canada.
Tournament Team members: Gemma Beadsworth, Bronwen
Knox.
Students
World Student Games, Belgrade, Serbia, July, 2009:
Lea Barta, Victoria Brown, Hannah Robinson, Elise Rossato,
Sarah Mills, Sophie Rickets, Rowena Webster, Jo Whitehorn,
Keesja Gofers, Melissa Hammond, Lisa Callahan, Ali Van
Ommen, Nanda Stolz. Head coach: Aleks Osadchuk. Assistant
Coach: Eddie Denis. Manager: Jenny Liessmann. Referee: Nicola
Johnson.
Day 1: Australia 11 (R Webster 5, E Rossato, S Mills 2, L Callahan,
J Whitehorn) Italy 9.
Day 3: Hungary 11 Australia 10 (R Webster 5, E Rossato, S Mills
2, L Callahan, J Whitehorn).
Day 5: China 8 Australia 6 (K Gofers 3, R Webster 2, S
Ricketts).
Final points: China 6, Hungary 4, Australia 2, Italy 0.
Day 7: Quarterfinal: Canada 10 Australia 8 (R Webster 6, E
Rossato, S Mills).
Day 9: Play-off for 5th & 6th: Australia 13 (J Whitehorn, K Gofers
3, E Rossato 2, L Callahan, N Stoltz, R Webster, M Hammond,
S Mills) Serbia 7.
Final placings: China, Russia, Hungary, Canada, Australia, Serbia,
Italy, Japan.
Junior Men
Born ‘89
European Tour, August-September, 2009:
James Clark, Joel Davis, Chris Dyson, Corrie Eames, Mitch Emery,
Jarrod Gilchrist, Lachlan Hollis, Mitch McCann, Tyler Martin, Ross
O’Brien, Mace Rapsey, Aidan Roach, Sam Robertson, Joel Swift,
Daniel Young, Carl Zvekan. Coach: Mark Hubbard. Manager:
David Swift. Referee: Nick Hodgers.
44
The big Aussie supporter group at the FINA Junior Men’s
World Championships in Sibenik.
International Series, Dubrovnik, Croatia, August, 2009:
Day 1: Croatia 12 Australia 8 (J Swift 3, T Martin 2, C Dyson, S
Robertson).

Desperate defence against eventual champion Croatia during the junior men’s FINA World Championships in Sibenik,
Croatia in August 2009.
Day 2: Croatia 15 Australia 13 (J Swift 3, C Dyson, M Emery, S
Robertson, A Roach, T Martin, D Young, L Hollis, C Eames, M
McCann, J Disken).
Day 3: Australia 13 (C Dyson, M Rapsey, A Roach, C Eames 2, M
Emery, T Martin, D Young, L Hollis, M McCann) Croatia 11.
Day 4: Croatia 12 Australia 10 (C Dyson 3, D Young, A Roach, J
Davis 2, J Swift, L Hollis, J Disken).
International Friendlies, Novi Sad, Serbia, August, 2009:
Day 1: Serbia 12 Australia 11 (M Emery, A Roach 2, S Robertson,
C Eames, M McCann, D Young, T Martin).
Day 2: Croatia 8 Australia 8 (S Robertson 2, C Dyson, A Roach,
J Swift, D Young, L Hollis, J Davis).
International Friendlies, Budapest, Hungary, September,
2009:
Game 1: Australia 10 (L Hollis, C Dyson, R O’Brien 2, J Swift, A
Roach, T Martin, C Eames) Hungary 10.
Game 2: Australia 15 (C Dyson 4, S Robertson, L Hollis, J Swift,
J Davis 2, A Roach, D Young, J Disken) Hungary 10.
Born ’93
European Tour, August, 2009:
Jake Burton, James Clark, Jeremy Davie, Michael De Gail,
Wade Eames, Blake Edwards, James Fannon, Matt Giles,
James Howden, Adam Polivka, Nick Redbond, Perry Short, Paul
Sindone, Edward Slade, Aaron Younger. Head Coach: Simon
Daley. Manager: Garry Rydberg. Referee: Nick Hodgers.
High Tatras Cup, Novaky, Slovakia, August, 2009:
Day 1: Australia 8 (A Younger 3, W Eames, A Polivka, B Edwards,
J Fannon) Serbia 5.
Day 2: Australia 13 (B Edwards 4, A Polivka 3, M De Gail, P
Sindone, P Short, M Giles, A Younger, N Redbond) Slovakia
7, Australia 7 (B Edwards, W Eames, M Giles 2, A Polivka)
Montenegro 7.
Day 3: Italy 9 Australia 6 (P Short 2, A Younger, J Fannon, B
Edwards, A Polivka), Australia 8 (A Polivka, M Giles 2, M De
Gail, P Sindone, P Short, B Edwards) Hungary 8.
Day 4: Australia 8 (A Younger 3, W Eames 2, M Giles, A Polivka,
P Short) Croatia 7.
Final points: Serbia 15, Italy 12, Australia 11, Hungary 10, Croatia
9, Montenegro 4, Slovakia 0.
XV FINA World Championships, Sibenik, Croatia, 2009:
Jake Burton, James Clark, Jeremy Davie, Wade Eames, Blake
Edwards, James Fannon, Matt Giles, James Howden, Adam
Polivka, Nick Redbond, Paul Sindone, Edward Slade, Aaron
Younger. Head Coach: Simon Daley. Manager: Garry Rydberg.
Referee: Nick Hodgers.
Day 1: Australia 15 (J Davie 3, A Polivka, W Eames, A Younger,
P Sindone 2, N Redbond, J Fannon, J Howden, B Edwards)
Slovakia 1.
Day 2: Australia 9 (J Davie 4, W Eames 3, J Fannon, M Giles)
Canada 9.
Day 3: Australia 14 (A Younger 4, J Davie, A Polivka 3, W Eames
2, P Sindone, B Edwards) France 6.
Day 4: Bye
Day 5: Croatia 10 Australia 9 (A Polivka 3, W Eames, A Younger
2, J Davie, J Howden).
Final points: Croatia 8, Australia 5, Canada 4, France 2, Slovakia
1.
Day 6: Australia 15 (A Younger 4, W Eames 3, J Burton, B Edwards
2, A Polivka, N Redbond, M Giles, J Howden) Egypt 3.
45

Day 7: Quarterfinal: Serbia 9 Australia 8 (J Davie, A Younger 3,
J Fannon 2) in extra time (FT: 7-7).
Day 8: Group 5-8 semifinal: Spain 9 Australia 5 (J Burton 2, W
Eames, A Younger, P Sindone).
Day 9: For 7th & 8th: Australia 11 (J Davie 3, M Giles 3, B Edwards
2, J Fannon, P Sindone, A Younger) USA 3.
Final placings: Croatia, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Spain, Italy,
Australia, USA, Hungary, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, New
Zealand, Slovakia, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Iran, Uzbekistan.
Junior Women
Born ‘89
European Tour, August-September, 2009:
Libby Alcock, Alicia Brightwell, Hannah Buckling, Shannon
Jones, Olivia King, Elyssa Larsson, Jamie-Lee Lewis, Jessica
Martin, Kelly Miller, Madison Morrison, Ebony Neesham, Ellen
Pittorino, Hannah Robinson, Ursula Talbot, Kelsey Wakefield,
Gaby Wikman, Emily Young. Coach: Greig Richardson. Manager:
Charlene Somerville. Referee: Michael Hart.
Manchester, England, August, 2009:
Australia 11 (G Wikman, H Buckling, J Martin 2, A Brightwell, H
Robinson, E Pittorino, M Morrison, S Jones) Great Britain 1.
George Kassimatis Cup, Perama, Greece, August, 2009:
Day 1: Netherlands 10 Australia 7 (A Brightwell 5, H Buckling,
H Robinson).
Day 2: Australia 11 (A Brightwell, JL Lewis, E Neesham 2, L
Alcock, E Pittorino, G Wikman, S Jones, H Robinson), Spain
9 Australia 5 (G Wikman, J Martin, E Neesham, JL Lewis, S
Jones).
Day 3: Bronze medal, Greece 14 Australia 4 (H Buckling 2, H
Robinson, L Alcock).
Final placings: Spain, Netherlands, Greece, Australia, Italy,
France.
Naples, Italy, September, 2009:
Italy 13 Australia 5 (K Miller, A Brightwell 2, S Jones).
Born ‘93
European Tour, July, 2009:
Breanna Appel, Zoe Arancini, Ellie Armitt, Isobel Bishop, Eliesha
Browne Serena Reid, Rachel Flint, Emma Jo Grahame, Sarah
Grunberger, Kayle Leathem, Claire Pierce, Emily Scott, Ashleigh
Southern, Stephanie Thomas, Genevieve Venosta, Kelsey
Wakefield. Head Coach: Peter Szilagyi. Assistant Coach: Taryn
Woods. Manager: Annie Hayes. Referees: Andrew Carney, Noel
Harrod.
Final placings: Italy, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Greece.
International Series, Rome, Italy, July, 2009:
Day 1: Italy 10 Australia 7 (EJ Grahame, I Bishop 2, R Flint, Z
Arancini, E Browne).
Day 2: Australia 11 (Z Arancini 3, EJ Grahame, E Browne, A
Southern, E Armit, E Scott, K Leathem, R Flint, I Bishop) Italy
4.
Day 3: Australia 10 (Z Arancini, R Flint, C Pierce, E Browne 2, E
Scott, K Leathem) Italy 10.
Day 4: Australia 14 (Z Arancini, I Bishop 3, R Flint, A Southern,
C Pierce 2, E Scott, EJ Grahame) Italy 9.
International Series, Heidelberg, Germany, July, 2009:
Day 1: Australia 22 (A Southern 5, B Appel, Z Arancini, C Pierce,
EJ Grahame 3, G Venosta, E Browne 2, R Flint) Germany 8.
Day 2: Australia 27 (A Southern 7, EJ Grahame 6, E Scott 5, C
Pierce 3, B Appel, R Flint 2, K Leathem, R Flint) Germany 7.
Day 3: Australia 24 (A Southern 4, EJ Grahame, C Pierce, S
Thomas 3, E Browne, S Grunberger, G Venosta, R Flint, K
Leathem 2, E Armitt) Germany 7.
Australia wins series 3-0.
FINA World Championships, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia,
August, 2009:
Breanna Appel, Zoe Arancini, Isobel Bishop, Eliesha Browne,
Serena Reid, Rachel Flint, Emma Jo Grahame, Kayle Leathem,
Claire Pierce, Emily Scott, Ashleigh Southern, Genevieve
Venosta, Kelsey Wakefield. Head Coach: Peter Szilagyi. Assistant
Coaches: Greg McFadden, Taryn Woods. Manager: Annie Hayes.
Referee: Andrew Carney.
Day 1: Australia 11 (A Southern 4, B Appel 3, I Bishop, G Venosta,
Z Arancini, C Pierce) Spain 9.
Day 2: Australia 8 (K Leathem, I Bishop 2, G Venosta, B Appel,
Z Arancini, A Southern) Italy 7.
Day 3: Australia 28 (K Leathem 7, EJ Grahame, Z Arancini 5, E
Scott 3, B Appel, A Southern 2, E Browne, I Bishop, R Flint, C
Pierce) Kazakhstan 4.
Final points: Australia 6, Italy 4, Spain 2, Kazakhstan 0.
Day 5: Quarterfinal: USA 9 Australia 5 (EJ Grahame 2, B Appel,
A Southern, I Bishop).
Day 6: Canada 4 Australia 3 (R Flint 2, EJ Grahame) in extra
time (FT: 3-3).
Day 7: Play-offs: For 7th & 8th, Australia 11 (K Leathem, B Appel
3, A Southern 2, I Bishop, G Venosta, Z Arancini) Spain 6.
Final placings: Russia, Netherlands, USA, Hungary, Italy, Canada,
Australia, Spain, Greece, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa,
Kazakhstan, Brazil, Uzbekistan.
46
Pythia Cup, Itea, Greece, July, 2009:
Day 1: Australia 15 (Z Arancini 5, A Southern 4, E Scott, E Browne
2, C Pierce, K Leathem) Greece 8, Italy 10 Australia 8 (A Southern
6, EJ Grahame 2).
Day 2: Australia 12 (A Southern 4, G Venosta 2, EJ Grahame, K
Leathem, R Flint, E Browne, E Armitt, C Pierce) Netherlands 7,
Australia 11 (K Leathem 3, A Southern, EJ Grahame 2, Z Arancini,
E Scott, R Flint, C Pierce) Spain 8.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SPORTS TRAINING GRANT (AGSTG)
Australian Water Polo Inc acknowledges and thanks the Australian Government through the
Australian Sport Commission for funding under the Australian Government Sports Training
Grant (AGSTG) for the year ended June 30, 2010, made available to our female athletes for the
amount of $169,000.
WINNING
PARTNERSHIP
The Australian Sports Commission
proudly supports Australian Water Polo
The Australian Sports Commission is
the Australian Government agency that
develops, supports and invests in sport
at all levels in Australia. Australian
Water Polo has worked closely with the
Australian Sports Commission to develop
water polo from community participation
to high-level performance.
Australian Water Polo is one
of many national sporting
organisations that has formed a
winning partnership with the
Australian Sports Commission to
develop its sport in Australia.
AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION
www.ausport.gov.au
47

AUSTRALIAN WATER POLO INC.
ABN 27 827 505 148
PO BOX 60
LINDISFARNE
TASMANIA 7015
48
TELEPHONE: 03 6216 8999
FACSIMILE: 03 6216 8990
EMAIL: awpi@australianwaterpolo.com.au
WEBSITE: www.australianwaterpolo.com.au