Australia men's national water polo team

The Australian national water polo team represents Australia in men's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Water Polo Australia. The national men's team has the nickname of "The Sharks". It is organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group.

Australia
FINA codeAUS
Nickname(s)Sharks
AssociationWater Polo Australia
ConfederationOSA (Oceania)
Head coachElvis Fatović
Asst coachDean Kontlc
Paul Oberman
CaptainAaron Younger
FINA ranking (since 2008)
Current7 (as of February 2020)
Highest7 (2012, 2018, 2019)
Lowest9 (2011, 2013, 2015, 2016)
Olympic Games
Appearances16 (first in 1948)
Best result5th place (1984, 1992)
World Championship
Appearances18 (first in 1973)
Best result4th place (1998)
World Cup
Appearances9 (first in 1981)
Best result (2018)
World League
Appearances16 (first in 2003)
Best result (2007, 2008, 2019)
Commonwealth Championship
Appearances2 (first in 2002)
Best result (2006)
Media
Websitewaterpoloaustralia.com.au

History

Australia has competed internationally since the 1948 London Olympic Games, and has qualified for all subsequent Olympic tournaments except Atlanta in 1996, and although not achieving the success of European teams, has remained relatively competitive at international level since.

In 1968, the team qualified to compete at the Mexico Olympic Games, but was denied entry by the Australian Olympic Federation.[1]

Australia scored their first point in Olympic competition when they drew with Bulgaria in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

The Australian team placed 5th in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the highest Olympic placing so far, and finished 4th in the World Championships at home in Perth in 1998.

Australia's best international water polo success came in 1996, when the Sharks won the six-nation Control Cup in Hungary, and followed it up with a bronze medal at an eight nation tournament in Italy in the same year. However, they failed to qualify for that year's Olympics for the first time since 1948.

A reinvigorated youthful team managed to finish second to Canada in an international tournament in England in 2002, and in 2003, they beat then world champions Serbia 12–11 in a FINA Water Polo World League match in Hungary, and followed it up by beating Croatia 10–6 at the 2003 Water polo world championship in Barcelona, Spain.

Tournament history

A red box around the year indicates tournaments played within Australia

Olympic Games
Olympic Games record
Year[2] Round Position Pld W D L
1900 Did not participate
1904
1908
1912
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1948 Group stages 17th 2 0 0 2
1952 Group stages 17th 2 0 0 2
1956 Group stages 9th 6 1 0 5
1960 Group stages 15th 3 0 0 3
1964 Group stages 12th 2 0 0 2
1968 Qualified but did not compete
1972 Group stages 12th 9 0 2 7
1976 Group stages 11th 8 1 1 6
1980 Group stages 7th 8 5 1 2
1984 Final Group stages 5th 8 2 2 4
1988 Group stages 8th 8 3 0 5
1992 Group stages 5th 8 4 2 2
1996 Did not qualify
2000 Group stages 8th 8 1 2 5
2004 Group stages 9th 8 3 1 4
2008 Group stages 8th 7 3 1 3
2012 Quarter-finals 7th 8 3 0 5
2016 Group stage 9th 5 2 1 2
2020 Qualified
Total0 Titles17/27100281359

World Championship

World Cup

World League

Commonwealth Championship
  • 2002 – Silver medal
  • 2006 – Gold medal
  • 2014 – Did not participate

Team

Current squad

Roster for the 2019 World Championships.[3]

Head coach: Elvis Fatović

№ Name Pos. Height Weight L/R Date of birth Club
1Joel DennerleyGK1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)R (1987-06-25) 25 June 1987 UNSW Wests Magpies
2Richard CampbellFP1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) (1987-09-18) 18 September 1987
3George FordCB1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)R (1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 UWA Torpedoes
4Joe KayesCF1.99 m (6 ft 6 in)R (1991-01-03) 3 January 1991 ACU Cronulla Sharks
5Nathan PowerCB2.00 m (6 ft 7 in)R (1993-02-13) 13 February 1993 UNSW Wests Magpies
6Lachlan EdwardsCF1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)R (1995-02-06) 6 February 1995 USC Trojans
7Aidan RoachFP1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)R (1990-09-07) 7 September 1990 Drummoyne Devils
8Aaron Younger (C)CB1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)R (1991-09-25) 25 September 1991 Fremantle Mariners
9Andrew FordFP1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)R (1995-04-21) 21 April 1995 UWA Torpedoes
10Timothy PuttFPR (1998-11-06) 6 November 1998
11Rhys HowdenFP1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)R (1987-04-02) 2 April 1987 Brisbane Barracudas
12Blake EdwardsFP1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)R (1992-02-14) 14 February 1992 USC Trojans
13Anthony HrysanthosGKR (1995-11-28) 28 November 1995 Sydney University Lions

Notable players
gollark: You found somewhere which lets you run arbitrary nodecode™ *and* use npm packages?
gollark: Sure you can, it's easy.
gollark: Well, you can send your test stuff and code to me, and it'll run on one of the available osmarks.tk computing servers.
gollark: You need npm too, obviously.
gollark: I mean, you could use osmarks.tk's secondary computing server.

See also

References
  1. "Games bid by Aust water polo team". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 December 1971. p. 11.
  2. "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics – Download" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2017. pp. 5, 15, 25, 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  3. "2019 World Championships roster" (PDF). Omega Timing. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
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