2009-10 Annual Report - Australian Water Polo Inc

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.
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