Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks World Aquatics Championships campaign

GAME 6: AUSTRALIA 10 def by CROATIA 17

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks have finished 10th after a tough loss to Croatia on their final day of competition at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.

The Sharks started strong, managing to stay within two goals of the Croatians at half time.

Charlie Negus, Chaz Poot (2), Tim Putt, Matthew Byrnes, and Luke Pavillard all scoring goals for their side in the first half.

In the third quarter, the Croatians came out firing, taking a 8-14 lead into the last quarter.

Despite a team defensive effort, and goals courtesy of Marcus Berehulak and Luke Pavillard in the final period, it wasn't enough to hold off the London 2012 Olympic gold medalists.

AUSTRALIA: 1. PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus; 3. FORD, George; 4. NEGUS, Charlie (1); 5. POWER, Nathan (1); 6. EDWARDS, Lachlan; 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (2); 8. BYRNES, Matthew (1); 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus (1); 10. PUTT, Tim (1); 11. POOT, Chaz (3); 12. SLOBODIEN, Sam; 13. HEDGES, John

GAME 5: AUSTRALIA 16 d JAPAN 15

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks will playoff for ninth place at the World Aquatics Championships after defeating hosts Japan in the classification matches today.

The Aussies made a strong start, courtesy of Matthew Byrnes winning the swim up and a quick goal by Charlie Negus. The momentum carried them through the first quarter, with a two goal lead heading into the second.

The fast and agile Japanese side came back in the second quarter, claiming a one goal lead with two quarters left to play. But a determined Aussie outfit returned to the pool in the third quarter, outscoring their Japanese counterparts 4-3, and the scores locked 13-13 at three quarter time.

In the fourth quarter, young gun Marcus Berehulak scored his second goal of the game to get the Sharks out to a one goal lead. Team mates Charlie Negus and Luke Pavillard also put away goals to secure the win for the Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks.

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks will now play Croatia in the 9-10 playoff on Thursday at 11.30am AEST. Watch live via 9Now.

AUSTRALIA: 1. PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus (3); 3. FORD, George; 4. NEGUS, Charlie (2); 5. POWER, Nathan (3); 6. SLOBODIEN, Sam; 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (4); 8. BYRNES, Matthew (1); 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus (2); 10. PUTT, Tim; 11. POOT, Chaz (1); 12. TOWNSEND, Reilly; 13. HEDGES, John

GAME 4: AUSTRALIA 8 def by FRANCE 11

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks have fallen just short of a quarterfinals berth after a tough loss to France at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

The French came out firing, outscoring the Aussies 4-0 in the first quarter. The Aussies strung together a resurgence in the second quarter, slotting five goals, to head into the second half trailing by one.

Despite strong defence in the second half, the Aussies weren't able to keep the French at bay, going down by three goals to miss out on a place in the quarterfinals.

Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks Head Coach Tim Hamill said: "A slow start in the first quarter, trailing 4-0, forced us to chase the game. We were good enough to get back to 6-6 but late in the game failed to execute in the key moments when it mattered.

"The group, upon reflection of this game, agreed it was a big missed opportunity for us and how we played. But as ever, we need more of these international competition opportunities, and moments like tonight to learn from and experience so that we can improve.

"Now we play Japan who are always a tough match up with their unique game, but we're very familiar having played against them earlier this year in Perth and spent 8 days training with them before these World Championships," he said.

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks will now play Japan on Tuesday 25 July at 2.30pm AEST. Watch live via 9Now.

AUSTRALIA: 1, PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus (1); 3. FORD, George; 4. NEGUS, Charlie (2); 5. POWER, Nathan (1); 6. EDWARDS, Lachlan; 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (2); 8. BYRNES, Matthew (1); 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus; 10. PUTT, Tim (1); 11. POOT, Chaz; 12. EDWARDS, Blake; 13. HEDGES, John

GAME 3: AUSTRALIA 22 def KAZAKHSTAN 6

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks have finished the preliminary rounds of the World Aquatics World Championships with a dominant 22-6 win over Kazakhstan. 

In a true team performance, the goal scoring was shared across 10 players, with Nic Porter and John Hedges solid in goals. 

Out of the gates the Aussie Sharks pounced, setting up a strong 7-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.  

While Kazakhstan turned up their defences to keep Australia to just three points in the second quarter, the Aussies defensive efforts were maintained, with the Sharks able to maintain a 10-3 lead at half time. 

The Aussies carried the momentum into the final two quarters, notching a further four goals in the third period to push the lead out 14-4.  It was all Australia in the final period, scoring an impressive 8 goals to Kazakhstan’s 2 to finish out the game 22-6.

The young side welcomed back Co-Captain Blake Edwards who missed the first two games due to shoulder injury.  Chaz Poot took out player of the match with an impressive four goals.  Charlie Negus also notched up 4 goals, with Lachlan Edwards and Angus Lambie both taking hat-tricks.

Commenting post match, Poot said: “It feels pretty good and full credit to the boys. We had a job to do, we did it and we’re pretty happy with it. 

“[Next match] we want to give it 100 percent and hopefully come away with the win.”

The Aussies now progress to the cross over matches on Sunday 23 July and will await to see who they meet (time TBC).  

AUSTRALIA: 1. PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus (3); 3. Slobodien, Sam; 4. NEGUS, Charlie (4); 5. POWER, Nathan (1); 6. EDWARDS, Lachlan (3); 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (2); 8. BYRNES, Matthew (1); 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus (1); 10. PUTT, Tim (1); 11. POOT, Chaz (4); 12. EDWARDS, Blake (2); 13. HEDGES, John 

GAME 2: AUSTRALIA 8 def by USA 16

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks have had a tough loss to the USA at the World Aquatics Championships in Japan, going down 8-16.

The Aussies started strong, Western Australia’s Luke Pavillard scoring the first goal of the game. The Americans edged ahead courtesy of goals from Hannes Daube and Max Irving, before a run of three goals from the Aussies (Nathan Power, Reilly Townsend and Pavillard) saw the Sharks take a 4-3 lead into the first quarter break.

The two sides were hard to separate in the second quarter, Power scoring his second and Pavillard his third of the game, and the scores looked at 6-6 at half time.

The US dominated the third quarter, and despite an attempt to shut them down in defence, the Aussies trailed by three goals heading into the last quarter.

Young gun Townsend managed to sneak one into the back of the net early in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the determined American side, who got out to an eight goal lead, and the end score 8-16.

Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks Head Coach Tim Hamill said: "The USA are a team that traditionally we've always loved matching up against.

"It would be really easy for us as a group to look at external reasons why we lost the game, or a few other things that didn't go our way, but as a group we've discussed that we need to keep getting our own backyard in order, and we're not quite there yet.

"We still had an opportunity to win the game, but we weren't able to execute. I really can't fault the effort of the players, but we needed to be better in the back end of the game.

"We're looking forward now to taking on the Kazakhstan team on Friday," he said.

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks play Kazakhstan on Friday 19 July at 5pm AEST. Watch live via 9Now.

AUSTRALIA: 1. PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus; 3. FORD, George; 4. NEGUS, Charlie; 5. POWER, Nathan (3); 6. SLOBODIEN, Sam; 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (3); 8. BYRNES, Matthew; 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus; 10. PUTT, Tim; 11. POOT, Chaz; 12. TOWNSEND, Reilly (2); 13. HEDGES, John

GAME 1: AUSTRALIA 9 def by GREECE 13

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks have gone down fighting in their first game of the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Eager to improve on their result against the Greeks at the World Aquatics World Cup earlier this year, the Aussies came out firing in the first quarter, with the scores locked at 2-2 after the first eight minutes of play.

The Olympic silver medalists edged ahead by two goals in the second quarter, and the Aussies trailed 3-5 heading into the second half.

Goal keeper Nic Porter was crucial for the Australian outfit, making some big saves in the goals to keep his team in the game. Both the Aussies and the Greeks scored three goals each in the third quarter, and the score 6-8 in the Greeks favour.

In the last quarter, Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks co-captain Nathan Power opened up with a massive goal to close the gap back to two.

The Greeks responded, but another goal from Charlie Negus kept the Sharks in the game. With 30 seconds to play, Power scored his second of the quarter and fourth of the game, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Greeks at bay, the end score 9-13.

Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks Head Coach Tim Hamill said his side will take plenty of learnings from the game to prepare ahead of the match up with USA on Wednesday.

"Whilst we never have, or will be, happy with a loss, there are some positive signs from the team's performance," Hamill said.

"We really wanted to get into the grind against the Greeks...we played poorly against them at the World Cup whhen they shot out to a big lead, so our focus was really on ruthless defence.

"We stayed with them, and the scores were locked at 9-all but unfortunately some critical errors are crucial times cost us. But as I said, some positive signs for our next game moving forward against the United States on Wednesday," he said.

The Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks play USA on Wednesday 19 July at 9:30pm AEST. Watch live via 9Now.

AUSTRALIA: 1. PORTER, Nic; 2. LAMBIE, Angus (1); 3. FORD, George; 4. NEGUS, Charlie (1); 5. POWER, Nathan (4); 6. EDWARDS, Lachlan; 7. PAVILLARD, Luke (1); 8. BYRNES, Matthew (1); 9. BEREHULAK, Marcus; 10. PUTT, Tim (1); 11. POOT, Chaz; 12. TOWNSEND, Reilly; 13. HEDGES, John