Water Polo Australia CEO Blog 1

Published Sun 08 Nov 2020

Welcome to the first edition of the CEO Blog!

There’s a lot of great things happening for water polo in Australia and I wanted to share this Blog with our community so that you can hear from me directly and get all the latest updates and detailed information from Water Polo Australia.

In the first edition of the blog we wanted to cover off some of the questions that we’ve been receiving, but for future editions we’d love to hear from you! Got a question you want answered? Email info@waterpoloaustralia.com.au

Australian Youth Water Polo Championships

We recently announced that the 2021 Australian Youth Water Polo Championships will be held during the April school holidays. The COVID-19 restrictions at the time we made the decision around the country and the impacts on travel and delivery of large scale community events, made the shift in dates necessary. The exact dates for each age group are still being considered and will be released by mid-November following a consultation process with our member states. For more information – click here

Australian Waterpolo League

At the moment we’ve got a range of options for what the 2021 Australian Waterpolo League season could look like. We’re currently working with our AWL clubs through the different options on the table. Now that the Western Australia borders will open on November 14 to all States, except NSW and VIC, it does make things a little bit easier. The available options range from a full 10 week season, right down to a condensed eight day competition in a single location. We’ll continue working with the AWL clubs in the coming weeks to finalise which format we will proceed with. But rest assured, the intention is for the Australian Water Polo League will go ahead in 2021, it just may be in a different format to what we’ve seen in previous.

Update on the Aussie Stingers and KAP7 Aussie Sharks

Our Olympic squads are continuing to work really hard in their home bases, supported by the National Institute Network (NIN). Our coaches, support staff and athletes should all be commended for their hard work, resilience, perseverance and determination they have all shown during this testing time. Our coaches and squads will be providing an update in the near future about upcoming camps and programs.

Changes to National Institute Network Programs

Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS)

The QAS have decided that they will continue to support the women’s program through until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but will not continue to support the men’s program beyond December 31, 2020. Our Queensland based Tokyo squad members will continue to be supported individually, and we’re currently working with Water Polo Queensland on a co-funded coaching role to deliver the programs in Queensland.

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS)

NSWIS recently decided that they will be reducing the number of scholarship holders. We’ve been working with NSWIS on what the list of scholarship holders will look like, and they’ll have some updates in the coming weeks. The original position from NSWIS was that they will offer 30 scholarships moving forward, however we have been able to negotiate this back up a little and more information will be released shortly to that effect.

Western Australia Institute of Sport (WAIS)

We’re working very closely with Water Polo WA and WAIS to finalise what that partnership looks like. What I can assure everyone is that water polo in WA will continue to be supported by WAIS and WPA. The nature of the WAIS support is that it currently is in services and support, so sports science, sports medicine, pool hire and provision of services to categorised athletes. The investment that WPA makes into WAIS largely goes towards the coaching staff salaries, it doesn’t cover all of it but it makes a large contribution to that.

So the good news is that will continue, but the configuration of that funding, and the configuration of the programs is undergoing a review and some change in WA. WAIS, WPWA and WPA are meeting with clubs again on November 17.

National Strategic Framework

The National Strategic Framework is a really exciting project and over the last few months the Water Polo Australia staff, Board and State CEOs have been working hard on it. After months of consultations and workshops we’ve landed on an overarching National Strategic Framework for the Sport for the next 10 years. It’s the first time that water polo has had a Framework of this kind, with an aligned Mission and Vision for the sport. I look forward to unveiling the National Strategic Framework in the coming weeks.

Richard McInnes

Check out the video blog from Water Polo Australia CEO Richard McInnes