The Aussie Stingers women’s team arrived in Shanghai looking to beat the USA and win the gold medal.

In the end the result was bitter sweet - they achieved part of the objective, taking down the defending champion USA side but doing it in the playoff off for fifth instead of for the title.

While they fell from medal contention with a penalty shootout loss to Italy in the quarterfinals, the Stingers showed with Classification round defeats of the Netherlands and the Americans that they have the ability to beat the best teams on the planet when they play at next year’s Olympic Games in London.

Here is coach Greg McFadden’s summary of the tournament:

The result:

“Our finish was the most positive thing. Our last two games were two of the best games of water polo we’ve played for a long time. The way we bounced back after the heartbreak of losing to Italy. The girls could have sooked about things and not bounced back but the way we played against the Netherlands was fantastic and so was the USA game. All the girls have responded really well and I’m pretty happy with where we are. Beating the USA, even though we’re not playing for first and second they’re pretty close to the best team in the world.”

Areas for improvement:

“Our shooting percentage is one area and its something we’ve already started to work on. Our extra man conversion is another area. Defensively I’m pretty happy with where we are – it’s very rare where teams are scoring a lot of goals against us. We’ve been working really hard on that over the last couple of years and now its more just refining our attack and our decision making and learning how to build pressure on the defence.

Players:

“Alicia McCormack finished the tournament really well in goals, she was very solid. Bronwen Knox had two good games towards the end, which was very pleasing because Bronwen had been struggling for form. Gemma Beadsworth was solid, Kate Gynther was solid and Rowie Webster had a very good tournament, as did Glencora Ralph. Those players like Rowie, Glencora and Bronwen came under a little bit of criticism after the World League rounds and to see the way they’ve played here, it’s been really pleasing.”

The future:

“We want to take the best 13 players (to London). Twelve months is a long time. Players get injured, payers improve, younger players improve probably more than senior players improve so there’s certainly hope for players who aren’t here.  They’ve got to work hard just as the players who are here have to work hard.”

Australian Water Polo Inc.