WATER POLO: On night one of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the Australian men’s water polo team will take on hosts Brazil in what is anticipated to be one of the most thrilling match-ups of the pool stages.

Brazil has taken every possible step to ensure it will be in the hunt for a medal in Rio, securing one of the world’s most successful water polo coaches, Croatian Ratko Rudić.

Rudić took the Brazil job post the London 2012 Olympics, where he led the Croatian team to gold.  His assistant coach at the London Games was Elvis Fatovic, who at this Olympics has stepped into the top job for Australia.

“I have huge respect for him and feel privilege that I had the opportunity to work with him,” Fatovic said. 

“But I will definitely be doing everything possible to surprise him this time.

“We are expecting a big crowd for the first game, which will be good for us. 

“It will be a challenge somewhat for both teams, but we are familiar with what the other team can do, there aren’t too many secrets between us.

“From the beginning when the draw was done, we knew there would be nine, 10 teams that would be competitive for the medal and I think both these teams (Australia and Brazil) are among those.”

While Australia’s men’s water polo team has yet to claim an Olympic medal, Fatovic believes that they have what it takes to finally achieve that goal in Rio.

“We head into this competition as the underdogs, but that’s the position we like,” he said.

“When we are at 100 per cent, we can absolutely be competitive with any team.

“We know what we need to do, we just need to focus on each game, one at a time.”

Having had a few days to settle in Rio ahead of the start of competition, the team has had the opportunity to train at both the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre and the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Australia will play Brazil on Saturday, 6 August, at 8:50pm Rio time (9.50am AEST Sunday, 7 August) at Maria Lenk.  

Lauren Ryan

olympics.com.au