Clontarf Waterpolo Development Tournament 2017
On the 21st and 22nd of January Clontarf hosted their annual tournament for players born in 2004 or after in Guinness Pool, Dublin.
They have held this Tournament since 2012 and this year had 17 teams enter this year.
Teams from all over Ireland and Sheffield being the only team to cross the water.
With 2 x Silvers and a gold at the three previous competitions and a strong team making the trip Coach Kevin felt confident that if we put in some good performances we could add to our medal tally.
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Players
Emma Jackson
Emily Crossley
Ethan Carpenter
Connie Swainson
Anna Motley
Dylan Hobman
Henry Jackson
Luke Taylor
Ben Urquhart
Kia Dyas
Results
Sheffield 12 v Drogheda 3
Sheffield 12 v Clonnard B 0
Sheffield 14 v Tribes B 0
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Semi-Final
Sheffield 7 v Clontarf 2
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Final
Sheffield 8 v Corrib A 3
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Al in all excellent performances from all the players young and old and a wonder weekend again in Dublin.
Special mention to Ben who got goalkeeper of the tournament and Emily that got MVP girl for the whole tournament.
Roll on next year.
IRELAND 2016
Third year of trying and after a semi final going to penalties and a final where we were 3-1 down in the fourth quarter with 2 minutes to go we came back to 4 all to take it to penalties. Won the cup, very proud of all the players and parents for a wonderful weekend.
Other score from the first day.
City of sheffield 13 Tribes 0
City of sheffield 6 St Vincent 0
City of sheffield 8 Donegall 3
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IRELAND 2015
For the second year in a row Rotherham Metro and Sheffield water polo came together to take an under 12’s team over to Ireland.
Over the weekend of the 3th and 4th of January our players competed in a junior development tournament in the Guinness pool Dublin.
There were a total of 13 teams (2002 born or younger)
We took 10 players
Henry Jackson 06/11/2005 Rotherham
Nadav Carmon 05/07/2003 Rotherham
Mackenzie Hyde 17/01/2002 Rotherham
Holly Pritchard 30/10/2002 Rotherham
Emily Crossley 11/11/2004 Rotherham
Alexandria Robinson 07/10/2002 Rotherham
Quinn Walker 11/04/2002 Rotherham
Mertan Sacmacioglu 26/02/2003 Sheffield
Esther Mead 02/02/2002 Sheffield
Luke Taylor 20/08/2004 Sheffield
Friday 2nd January
For most of the parents and players the weekend kicked off in Ireland on the Friday morning, some went off on their own to explore Dublin but most stayed together and visited the Jamison’s factory, this proved to be a very enjoyable and educational afternoon for all including a good chance to buy gift for family ect, and not to mention a few whisky’s and Irish coffee’s for the parents.
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On the Friday evening all the players and parents that landed on the Friday morning all met up at TGI Fridays for a group meal, the highlight of which was when the kids decided to try and embarrass me / get a free cake by telling the TGI waitresses that it was my birthday (it was not).
The waitress and kids then sang happy birthday and brought out some ice-cream with a candle in it which the kids kindly ate.
Once the meal was finished most people had an early night, it had been a very long day and the 4.30am start at Liverpool airport took its toll.
Saturday 3rd January
Again most parents and kids turned up for breakfast at 9.45, and again some went their own way, 19 of us decided to make our way into Dublin and go round the Leprechaun Museum, again both the kids and adults found this entertaining, educational and fun with lots of Irish folklore explained and stories told.
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This was followed by the kids playing on a mini fair prior to making our way down to the Guinness pool for the main event.
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After a good 20/30min land training / warm up with Itay the team were ready for their first match
The first match started well with a comfortable win over the Tribes A, some good play from the younger players ensured a comfortable win for us. The second game against Kells was again a comfortable win with many of the younger players showing true potential and skill.
Noticeable highlights from the day were 2 x goals from our third youngest player Luke and the youngest player Henry showing true passion by getting sent out for a foul against a much larger player.
Sunday 4th January
The Sunday was finals day, this day was always going to be a hard day, the best 4 teams played in the Semi Finals with us drawing Clontarf United.
We started this game hard and fast and quickly gained a good lead, the team played well and took their chances ending in a 8 – 4 win to us.
The final was always going to be the toughest game of the day and having watched the tournament all weekend we could see that Corrib A was the strongest Irish team at the tournament. Having spoken too many of the other team coaches it would appear that Corrib is the dominant team for all age groups in Ireland and tend to win all the competitions.
All the games prior to this had been played over 2 x halves however the final was to be played over 4 x 7min Quarters.
This game was one of the closest and best games I have witnessed at junior polo, the standard of polo played was exceptional and every player on both teams gave 100% in the pool, including a fantastic penalty save my Mackenzie to keep us in the game. Unfortunately with about 30seconds left in the game they managed to score a great goal to level the game at 8 – 8.
The final whistle went and it was decided by the organizers to play sudden death, far superior in my eyes to penalties (no one want to lose that way).
Unfortunately Corrib’s number 2 (voted by the organizers as the MVP boy at the tournament) managed to get a shot away and unfortunately the game finished 9-8 to Corrib A.
Results
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 9 V Tribes A 1
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 7 V Kells 1
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 8 V Clontarf United 4
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 8 V Corrib A 9
Finishing with a silver medal
Summary
The whole team can hold their heads high, their defending was exceptional on both the days putting incredible pressure on their opponents and forcing them to make mistakes which we then capitalised on.
The whole team played good water polo all weekend and have got allot to be proud of, I was extremely happy and proud of them all and many of the coaches commented on how well we had performed as a team and as individual players.
Finally we were honored as a club when Alexandria Robinson was voted by the organizers as the MVP Girl at the tournament by the organisers, they were not at all surprised to find out that she had been selected to trial for GB in Cardiff.
I would like to thank all the parents for taking the time out at this busy and expensive time of the year to make this weekend the successful as it was.
I would also like to thank Laura Crossley for being my assistant coach and helping me on the poolside, Itay for putting the kids through their paces on the pre-match land training sessions and last but by no means least special thanks for Michelle Crossley for organising this event for us, everything went without a hitch and we all appreciate the hard work and effort you put in.
Kevin (Coach Swainyyy)
IRELAND 2014
Rotherham Metro water polo and Sheffield came together over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of January. We sent an under 12's team over to Ireland to compete in a Junior development tournement.
There were a total of 12 teams (2001 born or younger) each team were aloud to take a maximum of 10 players.
We took 7 players (6 in the water and one sub)
Sam Swainson 2001 Born (Rotherham Metro water polo)
George Jackson 2002 Born (Rotherham Metro water polo)
Nadav Carmon 2003 Born (Rotherham Metro water polo)
Denver Carpenter 2001 Born (Sheffield)
Laura Crossley 2001 Born (Sheffield)
Emily Crossley 2004 Born (Sheffield)
Esther Mead 2003 Born (Sheffield)
Results
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 10 V Corrib B 1
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 7 V Kells 1
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 6 V North Dublin 4
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 7 V Clontarf A 6
Rotherham/Sheffield Water polo 6 V Clonard 10
Finished 2nd out of 12 teams.
Kevin Swainson (Coach) said “ The team we took were a young team who had only played together as a team once before, every player without exception did themselves and their respective clubs proud. They were a pleasure to coach and I could not have asked for a better group of kids, even in this short period all the players showed measurable improvements in their tactical perception of the game.
Considering that most the other teams had a 10 strong squad we did our selves proud".
