Australian Men’s Water Polo Team Nearly Cause Boilover

The Australian men’s water polo team almost pulled off the boilover of the 2012 London Olympic Games tournament, before eventually going down to gold medal favourites Serbia 11-8.

Serbia arrived in London as one of the pre-tournament favourites and topped their group to get to the quarterfinals, having won four games and playing one draw. They won silver in Athens (as Serbia and Montenegro) eight years ago and bronze in Beijing four years later.

After going down 2-0 early in the first quarter the plucky Australians scored five straight goals to lead 7-4 at halftime and an almost unthinkable upset was on the cards. But Serbia refused to lie down and scored seven second half goals, while restricting the Aussie Sharks to a solitary strike.

It was the second heartbreaking loss for Australia in as many days, coming 24 hours after the women’s team lost their semi-final showdown with the USA by a goal in extra time.

Australia’s four-time Olympian Gavin Woods said the way his side lost was shattering and the team had not been able to maintain their earlier levels of attacking energy and success in the last part of the game.

“It’s devastating,” Woods said. “We were leading for three quarters and to have it slip away in the last quarter is obviously a bit heartbreaking.

“We were probably trying to protect the lead a bit and probably went into our shells. The guys played well and put a lot of heart into it and probably deserved a better result from the game.”

Today, Serbia scored the first two goals of the game before the Australian attack forced two quick Serbian ejections in succession for Thomas Whalan to score with the extra player opportunity.

A superb Richie Campbell pass into WAIS athlete Jamie Beadsworth at centre forward gave the Aussies their next chance and Beadsworth, who has been in irresistible form throughout these Olympics, turned and drilled the shot past Serbian goalkeeper Slobodan Soro.

Rhys Howden scored on a counter attack 35 seconds later and with just over a minute to go in the first quarter Australia was up 3-2.

The second quarter began as the first ended – with Australia on top – and when WAIS athlete Tim Cleland scored in extra man after just 40 seconds, the Serbs looked rattled. If they weren’t then, they certainly were a minute or so later when Beadsworth scored a brilliant backhand from centre forward and suddenly the Australians had an unlikely 5-2 lead.

Serbia got a goal back in extra man before Campbell got one to drop in off the cross bar for a 6-3 lead. Filip Filipovic scored his second in extra man to get Serbia back into it at 6-4 but Campbell struck back almost immediately with a rocket from the right side and the Australians led 7-4 at halftime.

Serbia scored first in the third but when Billy Miller got his first of the game and eighth of his debut Olympics the Australians were back up by three. It was a stunning shot considering Miller was marked by two Serbs with the goalkeeper seemingly in position too.

Serbian Andrija Prlainovic came into the match as the Olympic tournament’s leading goal scorer with 18 and the 200cm giant got his first with 3:36 left in the quarter – Australia had effectively kept him off the scoresheet for an astonishing 20 minutes – and at three quarter time the Aussies led by two goals, 8-6.

Dusko Pijetlovic scored from centre forward 45 seconds into the final term to make it a one goal game and when Prlainovic scored his second in extra man after Campbell was excluded it was 8-all.

Filipovic got his third 90 seconds later and suddenly the Serbs were on a four goal run and in the lead, 9-8, for the first time since early in the first quarter. They went on to score another two goals – but more importantly – kept the Australian ball out of the net for the remainder of the game to ensure an emotional victory.

Australian goalkeeper Joel Dennerley was outstanding for the Australians, repelling wave after wave from the Serbian sharp shooters and marshalling his team well in attack and defence.

But Australian head coach John Fox made the extraordinary revelation after the game that the referees gave Dennerley an edict at three quarter time to stop shouting at his team. The ruling was unprecedented in major tournament play prior to London and Fox was at a loss to explain it, saying the directive may have impacted on Dennerley’s game.

“I’m a little bit miffed as to, I can’t see the rule written anywhere, that the goalkeeper’s not allowed to talk,” Fox said.

“At three quarter time he was told he had to be quiet. I mean this is a game of communication and I encourage communication. Where I see a rule that says my goalkeeper has to be quiet we’ll tell him to shut up…he was told that he had to quieten down and it’s just a very strange situation.

“Maybe that was playing in his head in the last quarter.”

Fox refused to use that as an excuse for the loss but he was annoyed by the ruling all the same. And rightly so.

Australia finished eighth in Beijing four years ago and was ninth at last year’s FINA World Championships so a top five or six finish here in London will be a major improvement – meaning a win in their next match, against either defending Olympic champions Hungary or reigning world champions Italy, is crucial.

The Aussie Stingers women’s team feturing WAIS athletes Gemma Beadsworth and Glencora Ralph will play Hungary for the bronze medal tomorrow night at 4.40pm Perth time.