Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the tremendous game of water polo. This coming Saturday is National Water Polo Day. Water polo is essentially soccer played by seven players per team in a swimming pool. Many within my electorate of Hughes play water polo, which is enjoying a growth following the successes of our national teams in recent years. At our most recent Olympics, for example, the Stingers won a silver medal and our Sharks finished eighth overall. Our local community was represented by Hughes resident Milos Maksimovic in the Sharks team.

Last week, I met with players and the executive of the Sutherland Shire Water Polo Association for their come-and-try day. I give a shout-out to President Michael Wirth and all the players, including Ashlee Rider from Heathcote. The association is celebrating 60 years, has 300 players and is rapidly growing. There are both competitive and social competitions for players aged as young as five right through to 75. Our local competitive teams are the Waratahs, Arctic and Gunnamatta, and we now have two social teams entering the competition, Shire and Bundeena. The association has a strong and proud tradition of producing many representative players, including Olympic players. Recently, the association was successful in obtaining one of my volunteer grants and purchased much-needed equipment and water polo balls.

So I say to all those that love swimming and want to play soccer in the water: give water polo a try.

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