Australian Waterpolo Update-Hunter Hurricanes v Drummoyne Devils (Women)
Newcastle (February 20) - Gemma Noon
Hunter Hurricanes v Drummoyne Devils (Women)
The Drummoyne Devils women secured their first win of the 2011 season at Lambton Swimming Centre on Sunday. The Devils prevailed over the Hurricanes 12-8.
“We saw the Hurricanes play against the University of NSW and they were pretty impressive. They should have won the game, and then Uni beat us, so we’re going oh gee whiz. But today we won by four and we’ve stood to get our first win,” Drummoyne Devils coach Ian Trent said.
The Devils’ coach was largely pleased with his youthful team’s performance, but he’d like to improve their patience and control.
“We have a very young side, so when you have young people they’re a little impetuous, but good water polo is about holding the ball, controlling the ball and controlling the opposition’s counter attack.
“To a large degree I thought we did it reasonably well,” Trent said.
The Hurricanes also have a number of young players, which means every game is a learning experience.
“We’re a team in transition; we’ve got a lot of young players in the pool, so for me it’s a big learning curve and the experience of going away and playing and being with the girls is all part of it.
“Everybody’s learning, so it’s good,” Hunter Hurricanes coach Brett Arnold said.
For the Hurricanes, it’s all about improving their execution.
“When we used the two centre forwards that went well and we were getting a few ejections from that.
“Execution in extra man let us down. We’ve got to look like we want to score – that’s our problem at the moment. We’ve got to feel confident in our scoring ability,” Arnold said.
FLASH QUOTES
Ian Trent, Drummoyne Devils Coach, on the team’s performance:
“Our objective was to control the ball and we haven’t been doing that in our first few games. Consequently we’ve been doing not as well as we should have, even against good sides. Yesterday we did better against Sydney Uni and today we did better again and it’s just a bit of a building block.”
“Our attack needs a lot of work. Our defence is pretty good, our fitness is pretty good, but mainly we need to do better on the two meter line in offence and we need to be patient and control it a little bit more. We’ve had some impetuous shots from young people, but I suppose that if you don’t shoot you don’t score. We’ve just got to pick our time a little bit better.”
On next week’s games:
“We’ve got the road trip to Brisbane for next week, which is a horror trip. It’s going to be real hard water polo but we’re up for it. All the young girls are improving and improvement is what we’re after.”
Serena Reid, Drummoyne Devils player, on their strengths and weaknesses:
“I think we had a good zone because we were really scared of number eleven, but we zoned pretty well. We probably need better centre back work for our next game.”
Brett Arnold, Hunter Hurricanes Coach, on shooting and defence:
“I need them to execute, like spreading it out and getting the wings deep when they do play that kind of zone against us. We won’t break it down until that happens. The girls have got to get themselves up and be prepared to have a shot, and I think some of them were a bit gun shy.”
“I was happy with that game; defensively it was great. The girls worked extremely hard and the effort was there.”
