WAIS Athletes Earn National Call-ups
With the Australian National Water Polo season wrapped up, attention has turned to the International arena, with WAIS athletes featuring prominently in both the men’s and women’s World League Final squads.
Four men and three women have earned representative call-ups for with WAIS athletes Luke Quinlivan, Tim Cleland, Aaron Younger and Joel Swift set to feature for the Sharks, whilst Gemma Beadsworth, Zoe Arancini and Glencora Ralph will play for the Stingers.
Barring injury or loss of form the same core group of Australian players will contest the FINA World Championships in Shanghai in July.
Men’s National head coach John Fox said he had to ensure both domestic and overseas based players could be fairly considered for selection, while noting the left hand side players had out performed the left handed players in the recent World League preliminaries in Auckland and Sydney.
“Obviously we had to line up performances of players in overseas leagues against that of players who played in our National League finals and World League prelims,” Fox said.
“This has been done based upon weekly reports from overseas observers and performances at the Volvo Cup in February.
“There are no left handers in the touring 15 because the players who have been selected to play on the left hand side of the pool have outperformed their left handed counterparts in both attack and defence.
“This means that we will have to rely upon a game-plan that takes this into account.”
In a double boost to WAIS athlete Aaron Younger, the 19 year-old was also named in the Australian U20 World Championship team along with WA and WAIS colleagues Eddie Slade, Sam Quinn, James Fannon and Nick Redbond.
Women’s National Head Coach Greg McFadden said he had selected the squad with an eye on July’s senior FINA World Championships in Shanghai, the World Junior Championships and the ultimate prize – the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“We have decided to leave a few senior players such as Victoria Brown and Melissa Rippon at home for this tour due to niggling injuries, so that they will hopefully be 100 per cent fit for the World Championships,” McFadden said.
“With the World Junior Championships also being held later in the year we wanted to give some juniors the opportunity to play against the best senior teams in the world.
“None of our Juniors will be considered for the senior World Championships in July as leading up to an Olympic year we do not want to burn them out.
“I also believe that it is important in their development to learn how to be the go to players in major championships amongst their peers and the World Junior Championships will provide them with that learning opportunity.”
Australia won the silver medal behind the USA in last year’s World League Finals.
– Water Polo Australia
