WATER POLO: The Australian men’s water polo team take on Greece tonight in a quarterfinal at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, aiming to qualify for their first semi final at this level in 17 years.
The Aussie Sharks last played in a world championship final four in Perth in 1998, losing to Hungary in the semi final before falling in the bronze medal match to Yugoslavia.
There have been quarterfinal appearances since then, not least of all at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona and the 2012 London Olympic Games, but Sharks’ stalwarts Richie Campbell and James Stanton-French, who between them have four Olympic blazers and hundreds of test caps, believe this is their best chance of crashing through the top four barrier.
The Sharks are in fine fettle, having finished second in their group behind tournament favourites Serbia before knocking out South Africa with a clinical 17-1 win in the quarterfinal qualifier on Sunday night.
On the other side of the pool, the Greeks are no easy beats and are in form too, having upset Italy by a goal in their opening game before scoring another single goal victory over the USA two days later to win their group and gain an automatic quarterfinal berth.
Campbell said the performances of the Australians so far in Kazan could only lead them to believe they are on the brink of a major breakthrough.
“I think everyone is confident that we are shaping up really well,” Campbell said.
“We’ve had good games in the early rounds, we played well and matched it with Serbia who are number one. I think we can match it with anyone, especially Greece.”
Campbell revealed the Sharks and coach Elvis Fatovic have talked of this opportunity for months, visualising themselves in a position to progress through to the final four and contest the medal rounds.
“The carrot to make the semis is dangling there,” Campbell said.
“I’ve been in this situation before in Barcelona in 2013 and we played the quarterfinal and it’s that stepping stone for us to win a quarterfinal game. We’ve spoken about it for the past nine weeks now on tour, the fact that our goal is to win this quarterfinal game.
“It’s going to be difficult but to make it to the semis is going to be a fantastic achievement, not only for this team but for Australian water polo.”
Goalkeeper Stanton-French, who debuted for the Sharks in 2002, agreed with his veteran teammate, saying the team had put in the required training to compete with the best at the pointy end of the tournament.
“To get into the top four would be the culmination of all this hard work we’ve been doing,” Stanton-French said.
“I think it would be the appropriate thing for us to get into the top four. The amount of hard work we’ve done before this, and the intensity that we’ve been doing it at all year has been so full on but you feel now in the water, in this tournament, you feel so prepared.
“This is hands down the best prepared Australian team I’ve ever played with, definitely.”
Stanton-French said that preparation came with a commitment and belief that augured well for not only their quarterfinal, but also the rest of the tournament and next year’s Rio Olympic Games.
“I put it down to the commitment that everyone wants to show to this, the belief we all have in each other and the belief that this is where we should be,” Stanton-French said.
“Especially leading up into next year, with the Olympics, that’s exactly where we want to be, top four.
“Everybody in this group believes we can be there and I think coming into the Greece game and especially with the form that we’ve been in, everyone’s going in brimmed full of confidence to take it to them and play how we’ve been playing the whole tournament.”
The game against Greece gets underway at 650pm local time (150am on Wednesday morning AEST), with the winner to play the victor in the quarterfinal between 2012 Olympic champions Croatia and Montenegro, who Australia drew 5-all with during the group stage.
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