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Women's water polo coach to search for answers post Kazan

 

Women's water polo coach to search for answers post Kazan

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AOC
Women's water polo coach to search for answers post Kazan
In the aftermath of their fourth placed finish at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, the Aussie women's water polo team will undertake an honest assessment of their standing on the world stage ahead of the 12 months leading into the Rio Olympic Games.

WATER POLO: In the aftermath of their fourth placed finish at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, the Aussie women's water polo team will undertake an honest assessment of their standing on the world stage ahead of the 12 months leading into the Rio Olympic Games.

Coming into the tournament with high hopes of winning the gold medal, the Stingers fell at their final two hurdles – by two goals in their semi final against eventual winners, the USA, and then in a penalty shootout against Italy in the bronze medal decider.

Australian head coach Greg McFadden was frank in his appraisal of the Stingers’ result and what lay ahead for his team, not shying away from the expectations he and the players have on their performances.

“It’s hard to take positives because we expect to win medals,” McFadden said.

“We have to have a good hard look at why we didn’t achieve that.

“We had the opportunity to win this competition and we didn’t take it. We really have to have a good debrief about this competition.”

The final placing was a disappointing one for Australia but captain Bronwen Knox was looking to take some positives away from what was a tough second week in Kazan.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do but this has shown us what we need to work on and the areas we need to work on,” Knox said.

“I see that as a positive we can take from this tournament.

“We’ve got 12 months to work on that and we are going to go out and give it everything in the next 12 months.”

Comparatively, with Rio in 2016 the focus, the Stingers’ result was better than that achieved at the same stage of their preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games where they won the bronze medal.

At the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai, the Australians missed a semi final berth, finishing fifth behind winners Greece, China, Russia and Italy. The USA, who was sixth in Shanghai won the gold medal in London from Spain.

From an individual perspective, every member of the Stingers squad made a contribution at some stage throughout the tournament.

Player of the match awards went to Glencora McGhie (vs Greece), Holly Linclon-Smith (vs South Africa and vs USA), Zoe Arancini (vs Netherlands), Lea Yanitsas (vs China) and Ash Southern (vs Italy).

Southern and McGhie shared Australia’s player of the tournament award, whilst Arancini was named in the FINA Team of the Tournament.

The Stingers’ will enjoy a few weeks off before returning to training camps in September and October, including some test matches against Japan. They will then play a test series against Brazil in Rio in November.

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