Australian Youth Team Finish World Championships Ranked Eighth

The Australian men’s youth team has completed its world championship campaign in Hungary in eighth place following a narrow defeat against Montenegro in their final clash.

Facing one of the traditional heavyweights of European water polo, the Australians were left to rue a second quarter fade-out in a one goal defeat that relegated them to eighth place overall.

The 12-11 scoreline was inflated for the Montenegrins during a lopsided second term where they outscored the Australians five goals to nil. That ended up being critical, with the Aussies finishing the match with a head of steam that nearly sent the contest to extra-time.

Western Australian Matthew Oberman scored one goal in the defeat and he said that defensively, the Australians had learned a costly lesson.

“Today was the last day of the tournament, we had nothing to lose so we just gave it our all and came back to one goal in the end, but unfortunately we couldn’t win.

“Defence is what we always pride ourselves on as a team, but it wasn’t at the level we would’ve liked and that is the reason for the loss,” he said.

Down 7-2 at half time, the Australians performed well to drag themselves back into the contest, but having fallen short, they end their campaign with three wins and draw to their credit.

The squad also featured captain Christian Kyriakou, who was born and raised in WA but is now affiliated with a Sydney club and through the New South Wales Institute of Sport.