Water polo season heating up at the Narrabri Aquatic Centre

The third round of Narrabri Dolphins Water Polo Club’s 2023/24 campaign was contested at the Narrabri Aquatic Centre on Sunday afternoon, where Namoi earned their maiden win in the junior comp before Barwon scored a massive victory to remain undefeated and on top of the ladder in the opens division.

Namoi entered the third round of the junior season having gone down in both of their previous games against Kaputar by just one point, however, they brushed those defeats off to earn a hard-fought 15-10 victory.

The two sides went into quarter-time level at 3-all after Namoi’s Elsie Barton scored a hat-trick, Kaputar’s Charlie Crocker bagged a double and teammate Elke Collins scored their other.

Namoi then took a narrow 7-6 lead into the main break after outscoring Kaputar 4-3 in the second quarter. Elsie scored her fourth goal in that period and teammate Chelsea Clarke netted three times, while Charlie and Elke scored another goal each for the Kaputar side and Ruby Greentree also found the back of the net.

The second half was where Namoi did the bulk of their damage as they won the third and fourth quarters, both four goals to two, to charge away to a five-goal victory. Maddison Connole scored all four of Namoi’s third-quarter goals before Elsie bagged a double in the fourth to finish with six, Chelsea scored again to finish with four, and Amelia Elms netted her first of the game. Charlie and Elke both scored for Kaputar in the third quarter and then Elke added her fourth in the fourth quarter, and Lachlan Dunn netted as well.

The first opens match of the day saw ladder leaders Barwon jump in the pool to challenge Wilga, and the first-placed side got the job done as they prevailed 16-4 to remain undefeated and move to nine competition points, a maximum haul after nine rounds.

The Barwon side led 6-0 at quarter-time and maintained the six-goal lead heading into half-time as both sides netted twice in the second term to make the score 8-2.

Barwon came out firing once again though, and outscored Wilga 5-0 in the third quarter and 3-2 in the fourth to win the match by 12 goals.

Dean Clarke finished the game with five goals for Barwon after netting two in the first quarter and three in the third, Darcy Gleeson found the back of the net in each quarter to finish the match with four, Alex Mison scored in every quarter except the second to end the match with three, Lucas Clarke scored both of his goals in the first quarter, and Melanie Clarke hit the back of the net in the second and fourth quarters to claim the side’s other two goals.

For Wilga, Sophie Donatini and Lauren Eather scored a goal each in the second quarter before teammate Sam Donaldson netted both of the side’s goals in the fourth.

The other game saw Nandewar edge out Kurrajong 9-8 in a much closer contest to remain just one win behind Barwon in second spot, while the Kurrajong team climbed the ladder despite the loss as they jumped Wilga on for and against difference.

Nandewar entered the quarter-time break in that game with a comfortable 5-1 lead after dominating the opening term. Pip Donaldson scored three goals for her side, while teammates Kobe and Harry Bennett netted once each and Todd Dunn claimed Kurrajong’s goal.

That four-goal lead was extended to five at half-time as Nandewar scored two goals to Kurrajong’s one in the second quarter to establish a 7-2 lead. Harry Bennett scored both of Nandewar’s goals and Jake Bussell netted for Kurrajong.

Kurrajong came out firing in the third quarter, during which they outscored Nandewar 5-1 to reduce their deficit to one goal as Nandewar found themselves clinging to an 8-7 lead at the final break. Rhys Bower claimed a hat-trick for the trailing team in the third quarter and teammates Todd Dunn and Nick Brennan scored a goal each, while Harry Bennett found the back of the net again for Nandewar.

Brennan and Bennett then scored a goal each in the final quarter as Nandewar held on to claim a 9-8 win after a thrilling finish.

The four opens teams have now all played against one another once each across the first three weeks of the campaign.

This Sunday’s round four action sees Barwon take on Kurrajong and Wilga challenge Nandewar after the junior contest between Namoi and Kaputar kicks off proceedings.