2009-10 Annual Report - Australian Water Polo Inc

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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
Page 1 and 2: Australian Water Polo Inc 2009-10 A
Page 3 and 4: The purpose of this Annual Report i
Page 5 and 6: LIFE MEMBERS Peter Montgomery AM 19
Page 7 and 8: ➤ President’s Report The 2009-2
Page 9 and 10: ➪ ➪ ➪ Performance Committee c
Page 11 and 12: • Club Property • Club Travel A
Page 13 and 14: Attendees at the national conferenc
Page 15 and 16: NWPL champion teams — Victorian T
Page 17: team properly as we had done in pre
Page 21 and 22: superiority and the players’ beli
Page 23 and 24: The Aussie Stingers front for a mat
Page 25 and 26: In the third quarter our attack cam
Page 27 and 28: ner, Sydney Olympic Park Best junio
Page 29 and 30: of form, we played possibly the wor
Page 31 and 32: • Represent the Athletes on AWPI
Page 42 and 43: National Championships Results 2009
Page 44 and 45: 42 SOPAC International, Sydney, Aus
Page 46 and 47: Bishop, R Webster, N Zagame 2, B Kn
Page 48 and 49: Day 7: Quarterfinal: Serbia 9 Austr
Page 50: AUSTRALIAN WATER POLO INC. ABN 27 8

2009-10 Annual Report - Australian Water Polo Inc

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