WEEKEND WRAP | RND 1 OVO AUSTRALIAN WATERPOLO LEAGUE

The OVO Australian Waterpolo League kicked off across the Australia Day long weekend, as teams returned for the eight week series.

The feature round of the week saw the Queensland Thunder at home to the ACU Cronulla Sharks at Valley Pool in Brisbane, with the match shown live on OVO Play.

Round one was the ‘Cole Miller round’ to honour Cole’s memory with all teams retiring the #10 cap during the round. It was fitting his former State Queensland were able to host the featured game of the round.

Despite missing Triple Olympian Rhys Howden (due to injury), the Queensland Thunder Men were able to pull together a full team effort to outscore the Sharks 15-11.

Goals were scored thick and fast for the Thunder Men, with youngster Reilly Townsend scoring three and Sam Lenarduzzi, Evan McLean and Marcus Berehulak with two goals a piece.

But it was the inspiring effort of Olympian Billy Miller, who scored four goals of his own, that sealed the win for Thunder.

Miller said that he was impressed by the young members of the team rising to the challenge on game day.

“It’s always a learning curve for the young boys in their first game of national league,” Miller said.

“We’ve been saying at training that they’ve got to step up every game and score goals, and they did that tonight and hopefully they can continue to do that every game,” he said.

The veteran admitted that he felt like the pressure was lifted from the boys in attack because of the teams’ defensive efforts.

“Our defence was really strong, both of our goalies were fantastic in the net,” Miller said.

Defending champions, Queensland Thunder Women, started the season in the same form as last year, eventually taking the win after a battle that lasted for the full four quarters.

Heading into the last quarter down 10-5, the Thunder knew they were going to have to step up, and youngster Abby Andrews led the charge, adding five goals to her teams 6-0 fourth quarter haul.

The two sides met again on Sunday, with the Thunder women claiming a second win in a close 16-15 encounter, and the men narrowly going down 13-11 to a Sharks side that was out for redemption.

AROUND THE GROUNDS

SYDNEY:

Drummoyne Pool proved to have a strong home ground advantage for both the men’s and women’s Drummoyne Devils sides, both teams taking victories in all four games against the Hunter Hurricanes.

The Devils’ men were able to restrict the Hurricanes to under 10 goals in both matches, winning 18-7 on Saturday before upping the ante on Sunday to take a 23-8 win.

While the Devils’ women were too strong for the visitors with 17-3 and 19-6 triumphs on Saturday and Sunday.

ADELAIDE:

The UTS Balmain Tigers travelled to South Australia’s capital and put on a show with convincing wins across all four games against FYFE Adelaide Jets.

The Tigers men scored an impressive total of 38 goals across the two games while limiting their opponents total to just five goals.

While in the women’s games, the Tigers continued the clubs winning streak securing two wins, 21-3 and 25-2.

HELPFUL LINKS

COMING SOON! Our team is finalising the men’s and women’s full match replays. When they are available online you will be able to watch them here

View women’s upcoming OVO AWL fixtures here

View men’s upcoming OVO AWL fixtures here