Bunbury waterpolo teams miss out on gold
Bunbury had to settle for two silver medals at the Bendigo Bank State Country Water Polo Championships at the South Wests Sports Centre on the weekend.
Looking the form teams going into the grand finals, both teams stayed in touch with Geraldton until halftime, but could not maintain the momentum in the second half.
The men lost 17 to 9 after being a top chance having gone down by only 5 to 4 on Saturday, while the women went down 18 to 8 — a far different scoreline from the previous day’s 6-5 victory over Geraldton in the preliminary round robin.
Draft pick Jonathon Nowers, from Port Hedland, was the go-to man for Bunbury and his non-stop action, along with goalkeeper Jack Deschamp’s fine saves, kept Bunbury competitive.
Jarrod English, who also coached the women’s team, was a frequent standout and was named to the all-star seven.
The quarter scores read 3-3, 6-5 and 12-8 with Geraldton pulling away with superior fitness and speed around the pool.
Veteran Kylie English collected yet another most-valuable-player award for the women’s tournament, scoring four times in the final.
Alice Rotheram, who played the important centre-forward position, was the tournament’s leading goal-scorer with 11 scores.
Chelsey Barrett and English were named to the All Star team.
The teams were locked at 3-3 by the quarter break, 8-6 at halftime and 13-7 after three periods.
Inaccurate passing caused most problems for Bunbury, coupled with the fantastic display of Geraldton’s current senior international Eliesha Browne, who was undeniably named the grand-final MVP.
Both Bunbury teams suffered from fatigue in the finals, which were played to full international timelines, effectively twice the length of the round matches.
After the round robin, Bunbury women were unbeaten and the men finished equal on points with Karratha, but advanced to the final by defeating the northerners 8-2 on Friday night.
Bunbury is well represented in State squads for the Easter Australian Country Championships in Karratha.
English, the two Rotherams, Chelsey Barrett, Tash O’Neill, Eboney Franklyn, goalkeeper Nicole Hearn and Louise Johnson were Bunbury named to the squad from which two teams will be selected.
Jarrod English and Lee Stiles were named to the first team while Jack Deschamp will keep goal for the second team alongside Alix English.
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