The Australian men’s water polo team, the Aussie Sharks, have secured their first victory of the 2013 FINA World Championships with a scrappy 9-7 result over Group C rivals China on day four in Barcelona, Spain.
WAIS athletes Aaron Younger and Joel Swift both featured for the Australians during the match.
It was a tale of two performances for Australia, who impressed in the opening three stanzas holding the Chinese to just three goals with some steely defence, before switching off in the final period to hand the Chinese a rare sniff of victory.
Coach Elvis Fatovic was disappointed by the Sharks’ lack of commitment for the full four quarters, but was pleased with the level of intent shown in the opening exchanges of the game.
“We started to play some great defence for the first three quarters, however we stopped playing defence in the last quarter. We must improve our defence by playing to the final whistle and then the job is done,” Fatovic said.
Australia jumped out of the blocks early snaring a 4-1 lead and extended that advantage at half time courtesy of a double to captain Rhys Howden and singles to Richie Campbell, Aidan Roach, Jarrod Gilchrist and Tyler Martin.
A dour third term saw Australia increase their lead to five goals at the last break with strikes to Howden and Campbell and when Joel Swift converted from centre forward 30 seconds into the final quarter the Sharks were in command at 9-3.
But that was the end of their dominance as China woke up scoring three goals in 60 seconds to reduce the margin to 9-6 with 5:17 remaining. The Sharks bumbled their way to the finish line conceding another goal with eight seconds left to end what was a disappointing passage of play.
Captain Howden was pleased to get the first win on the board and was encouraged by certain elements of the Sharks’ play but conceded the team could ill-afford to ‘switch off’ against some of the more experienced nations including their final Group C opponents Hungary.
“It was great to get our first win for the tournament. It was an important win today after a loss the other day. The first half for us was excellent and it started from our improving defence keeping them to two goals. In attack we put away our opportunities and put them under a lot of pressure,” Howden said.
“The second half however we lost a bit of concentration and mentally switched off making basic mistakes. They switched up there defence and we didn’t adjust quickly enough.
“As a team we need to make sure we are switched on for all four quarters and adjust better to what is put in front of us heading into the next games.”
The Sharks’ match versus Hungary is scheduled for 6.50pm AEST on Friday night, whilst the Australian women’s team, the Stingers, will cap off their group matches against South Africa at 2.50am AEST early tomorrow morning.
-WaterPoloAustralia
