Aussie Juniors Eyeing Successful Campaign
Victories against Montenegro and Croatia have boosted the confidence of the Australian junior men’s water polo team ahead of the 18thFINA World Men’s Junior Water Polo Championships that begin in Almaty, Kazakhstan on Friday.
The team defeated Montenegro 11-8 at the recent Tiszavir√°g International Water Polo Cup in Szeged, Hungary and claimed the bronze medal at the tournament; before a penalty shootout against Croatia saw the Aussies edge out the 2013 junior world championships silver medallists 23-21 during a friendly earlier this week.
With strong wins under their belt in the lead up to the tournament in Almaty, Australia’s first assignment will be against 2013 junior world championship bronze medallists Serbia before subsequent group games against Mexico, Iran and Argentina.
Australian head coach Slobodan Macic made it clear that the first major milestone in Kazakhstan will be reaching the quarterfinal round, a challenge made harder with the introduction of the new test rules for this event.
“Our expectation is to make the quarterfinals and from there it all starts afresh and we need to be playing our best water polo if we want to progress further,” Macic said.
“The biggest challenge with the new rules for our guys is playing with a smaller ball and extra man plays.
“Our guys have already needed a large amount of physiotherapy after their first few games with the smaller ball as they are throwing it much faster then they were the size six.
“Extra man is a real challenge as it is now played as a five on four as opposed to six on five so each player needs sharper reactions and the players need to work very hard on their blocking technique. We have trialled three different extra man defence options and are still working on which will work best for us in this tournament.”
Buoyed by the victory against Croatia, Macic outlined that adaptability has been a core asset for this team throughout their European tour, especially when faced with tough opposition.
“Versatility will still be a major advantage for us and we are hoping it will make our team unpredictable heading into the final days of the tournament,” he said.
“With the world championships being the first major tournament using the new test rules all the teams will be trying to adapt as best as possible.
“For us we had a little insight into this at the tournament in Szeged, which really gave the guys a taste of what can be expected at the world championships.
The Australian squad contained four WAIS athletes, with Andrew Ford joined by Jordan Kremers Taylor, Will Mackay and Lach Pethick.
The Australian junior men’s team will commence their world championships campaign against Serbia on Friday September 4 at 4.20pm Perth time.
-WaterPoloAus
