The Australian men’s water polo team has thumped Brazil 13-6 in their second preliminary stage game at the FINA World League Super Finals in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The confidence boosting victory comes a day after the Aussie Sharks suffered a 14-11 loss to London Olympic foes Croatia. Australia will face another of their London group stage rivals Spain in their final preliminary round match tomorrow at 8.50pm AEST.
After ending the first quarter locked at 2-2 the Australians won the next two periods 4-1 and 4-2 respectively to take a 10-5 lead into the last term before wrapping the match up with a three goals to one final effort.
The Australians showed a greater level of intensity than they had the previous night resulting in tighter defence and subsequent counter attack and scoring opportunities. They will now look to focus on getting out of the blocks better after conceding a combined eight first quarter goals in their opening two matches.
Beijing Olympian Anthony Martin and rising star AJ Roach top scored for the Australians with three goals each while triple Olympian Thomas Whalan snared both his goals in the second quarter.
Australia’s head coach John Fox was pleased with the improved performance.
“It was a good game all round tonight and I was happy with the performance as a whole,” Fox said.
“It was certainly better than the way we played against Croatia and we will take another step in our next game against Spain.”
The Australians were once again without Gavin Woods and Rhys Howden who were both accidently injured in training incidents at the team’s camp in Bangkok last week.
The tournament is the last chance for the Sharks to impress Fox ahead of the final selection announcement of the 13-man London Olympic squad at the end of next week.
WAIS-AIS trio Tim Cleland, Jamie Beadsworth and Aaron Younger all featured for the Australians.
– Water Polo Australia
