We would love to wish everyone a safe and happy Easter weekend and for those who are going into the school holidays, a well deserved break!

This newsletter is covering some past achievements, competition structure, new training schedule and some other important notes you might want to keep track of.

Please feel free to send through achievements or special mentions you would like to be shared within the club, we always value every achievement, big or small.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY CLINICS

Reminder: our first school holiday clinic of the year is happening on the 12th and 13th of April. Please book in if you haven´t already had the chance. Its a great time to learn new skills and keep up with swimming over the break period.

BOOK HERE- https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1190054?

Any questions please contact Kirsty and she will be able to point you in the right direction kirstyteague1@gmail.com

WHATS NEW

We are so excited that MC is returning to the Senior Womens Competition next season with an SL2 team. Its been a tough period rebuilding our ranks, but we are back with a mix of old and new faces!! Training will be on Monday nights with the games on Tuesdays.

Any female players aged 16 or older who are interested in participating, please reach out to Kate Healy. kate@mcwaterpolo.com

PRESENTATION NIGHT

Please save the date for our annual club presentation night on the 5th May. More information to follow very soon.

TRAINING SCHEDULE TERM 2&3

We have restructured our next term trainings to accommodate for our members playing other sports and we are hoping this could work well for the winter months of the year.

We wish for everyone to make trainings sometimes things can happen. In that case you can contact the coach/manager. It is strongly advised to attend trainings to keep up with fitness, swimming and new skills.

VIC STATE COMPS

Our Junior players had a short 5 round robin to see them through the summer, with no official finals to finish up the season.

Our U16 team finished top of the ladder. Our two U14 teams finished 1st and 2nd. The U12 mixed teams worked much better in the younger division. Our U14 and U16 girls were mixed on the whole comp.

We also have to share some great achievements in our club from the state league comp SL1-SL6.

Our MSL1 MC Falcons lost 10-12 to Footscray, the young team played very well and we are very proud of their performance.

Daniel Magasanik was announced MVP

WSL2

Caroline Healy, MVP

MSL2

MC Blackballs defeated Monash Uni 18-14

Anthony Edwards took away MVP and HGS of 68 goals

MSL3

MC Otters defeated Melbourne Uni 8-7 (penalties reached)

Sam Bennett took away HGS 41 Goals

MSL6

Footscray defeated MC Blue 7-2.

FUTURE...

We have just seen news that the structure of the Victoria Comp is changing back to how it was pre covid.

The summer competition for seniors will start July- finals in Dec.

Juniors will have a few small round robins and then start the summer season in October.

Due to the short turnaround in the new competition structure Water Polo Victoria will be providing a round robin social competition (approx 6 rounds) in May for all senior and junior teams that wish to take part. This will commence in the middle of May 2024 and run until the end of June.

https://www.vicwaterpolo.com.au/single-post/water-polo-victoria-domestic-calendar

TOURNAMENTS-

Australian Youth Water Polo Championships 24-

Melbourne Collegians sent 3 teams to AYC this year, held in Brisbane 5-16th January and had four players participate in teams for other clubs.

Week 1 saw our U14 and U18 Boys teams compete in the top division. The U14 boys had several players attending the competition for the first time. This steep learning curve against the countries best was met with resilience and despite some early losses, Jade Vidal and Campbell Jaski coached well to see them finish with strong wins to finish 9th.  U18 boys finished the competition with bronze. Two close losses early in the week set them up for a pathway to the tougher semi, so that made bronze a really pleasing finish. Excitingly, Daniel Magasanik took out MVP for the tournament. The starting seven from this U18 team were playing their last AYC, after an illustrious junior career at the national level competitions. Further, it was the last junior competition for two of the clubs stalwart coaches, Simon Magasanik and Jack Mordes. They have contributed a lot more to the lives of the young people they have coached over the years than just some water polo skills. They have generously given many hours and much effort to the club and we thank them. Both these teams stayed together at Raymont College, having a lot of fun when not playing.

Scarlett Mulhall played U18 Green for Richmond, finishing with silver in that division.

Week 2 saw a combination team from Melville WPC and MC compete in U16 boys top division. The combination saw the boys looked after by 3 exception coaches in Jude Allan, Simon Asher and Peter Feizaks, with some sage advice from Tom Hoad the icing on the cake. Although they grew together as a team very swiftly, it was just a little too late to see them into the top 8, but they held their heads high and worked diligently to bring in 9th place, a close win against our friends from Ovens and Murray.   

Caroline Healy played a great tournament as goalie for Richmond U16 girls.  

Chris Vildovas played U16 Green Division for DVE, finishing 7th of that division.

Lennox Allan played U12 gold for UQ Barras and was highest goal scorer for the team.

Both weeks saw all parents chip in with significant support. In particular, Team Managers Kate Healy and Amanda Briganti, plus Camp Mum, Tamara Heffernan.

Geelong Tri-States 24-

(A summary from Amanda about U12s)

How lucky were we to get the perfect weather for our little ones! For the majority who participated in this event it was the very first time some of them had played more than one game in one day, let alone the six games across the two days.

We had a full team of 14 very eager players who participated with such enthusiasm over the tournament.

It was an intense two days for both players and coach, however it was so wonderful to see the HUGE improvement from each player from game one day one to game six on day two.  It was also so lovely to see many friendships build between these young players over the two days.

Congratulations to this team for placing third and receiving Bronze. Thank you to Brooke for her patience and commitment to this team. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful role model for our under 12s team.

Canberra Cup 24-

The dates for this years competition are Friday 8th November, Saturday 9th November & Sunday 10th November 2024. We will be sending out a EOI end of Term 2 so please keep an eye out for this.

Ballarat Tournament 24-

The proposed dates for this tournament is in October, once we have more word we would love to share to all U12 & U14 members of our club.