2009-10 Annual Report - Australian Water Polo Inc

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