CLEAN SWEEP FOR AUSSIE WATER POLO TEAMS IN BRISBANE

Australia’s men’s and women’s water polo team have made a clean sweep of the Australia verse Japan Test Match Series in front of a sell out home crowd at the Valley Pool, Brisbane.

While the women dominated their game, the final match of the night went down to the wire with the Aussie Sharks managing to deliver a 11-10 win in the dying minutes of the game.

It was a tight opener with both men’s teams tied up at 1-1 deep in the first quarter. The deadlock was broken by dual Olympian Aidan Roach following a great team play to put Australia ahead 2-1 in the first quarter break.

But Japan fought back and weren’t going to let the home side run away with the match, locking up the scores 4-4 at half time.

The Aussies came out firing in the opening minutes of the third quarter scoring two unanswered goals.

But Japan were quick to respond to level scores again 6-6 before taking advantage of unforced turn overs to open up a handy 10-8 lead at the end of the third quarter.

The Japanese team came into the fourth quarter determined to keep the momentum going and take redemption after yesterday’s loss.

But the vocal home crowd lifted the Aussies with Captain Joel Dennerley in goals delivering impressive saves and firing up the Sharks and the crowd.

Lachlan Edwards, after two deflections, narrowed the gap to 10-9 with only three and half minutes remaining in the match. Lachlan Hollis then fired a rocket in from down town to level the scores at 10-10.

With 1.47 minutes to go in the game Aussie Sharks Coach Elivis Fatvic called a vital time out after being awarded an extra man opportunity.

With two seconds on the shot clock, ice cool three time Olympian Richie Campbell scored from long range to put the Aussies in the lead 11-10 lead and eventually claim the victory.

Aussie Sharks Captain Joel Dennerley said: “It was definitely a nail biter, Japan put up a very tough contest today.

“From our perspective we were glad to get the win in front or a great crowd tonight, we have a lot of areas to improve but we’ve got some time ahead of the World Champs.

“The support the last two days here in Brisbane has been fantastic, it was a close contest back and forth the whole game and every little bit of support helped.

“Japan are a quality international side… they play a really high intensity of water polo, they play to the death, they play to the last whistle and you’ve got to stay on them for the full match you can’t switch off at any time.”

For the Aussie Stingers it was a slightly different story, dominating from the outset and powering home to win 20-9.

It was once again a passionate home crowd that propelled the Stingers to an emphatic win, with young gun Amy Ridge leading the scoring with six goals followed closely by former Brisbane local Ashleigh Southern with five goals.

There was no stopping the Australians, who were thrilled to be playing on home soil to kick off the 2019 international season as the preparations for Tokyo 2020 begins to heat up.

The scoring opened with a nice lead to the Australians 5-1 at the end of the first quarter, but the second quarter was when they pushed out to a commanding lead to be 12-3 at half time.

Japan tried to claw their way back but the powerful Australians in their attack and defence proved too tough, maintaining a 16-5 lead at the end of the third and pushing on 20-9 win at full time.

Rio Olympian Zoe Arancini, captained the Aussie Stingers and said her side couldn't be happier with their performance. 

"Great way to start, two from two (wins) you can't ask for a better way to start and we'll look to improve on our performances throughout the year.

"I don't think I've ever played in front of a crowd like this in Australian since the World Championships in 2007, it's so fantastic to see all the juniors out here to tonight to cheer us and the men on," said Arancini.

The Australian Women's Team now turn their attention to the FINA World League Inter-continental Cup that will be held in Perth, WA in March, where they will take on some of the world's best teams in a bid to qualify for the World League Super Final.

Both the Australian Men’s and Women’s teams will remain in Brisbane for their first camp of the year.

Players will then head back to their Clubs to prepare for the start of OVO Australian Waterpolo League that kicks off on 2 February 2019.