Player of the game

Fergus - Fergus was a force on both offense and defence. He scored two goals, but his biggest impact came on defence. He had several key steals and blocks, including one amazing play where he intercepted the ball in the pit and then drove all the way to the other end of the pool for a goal. Fergus was a dominant force in the water, and he was a well-deserved recipient of the player of the game award.

Coaches player of the game

In a Sharks first, coach Pete would like to give his first and currently only "Coaches Player of the game" Award to ... Ant K - Ant has really been working his ass of in the water recently, the pit position is draining and hard work and Ant has definitely been putting in the time and effort to home his skills in the position. Personally I've been dreading going in pit with Ant on my case, as I know for certain, it's not going to be easy.

Honourable Mentions

Chris Raffo with this intense speed and great situational awareness, scoring 3 great goals.

Chris V did some great passing, with his "third eye" helping him to see the open players.

Rick T worked incredibly hard, providing the glue that held us together.

Ant K, or Ant the Kinkajou (its a agile and strong rainforest mammal, look it up :) ), played amazing in defence, stopping many of the other team's scoring opportunities.

Mark the Meerkat made some amazing saves, keeping the ball out of the net.

Summary

Firstly a message from our fearless leader and "that guy who we made temporary captain that one time, and were worried it would go to his head", none other than Mr Chris Raffo 👏👏👏👏

Causation vs Correlation? Sharks without fearless leader Chris Raffo 0-1, Sharks with handsome defensive rock Chris Raffo 2-0. Now ask yourself this is this coincidence or not. Some might say due to Chris Raffos tireless work rate in both attack and defence that the Sharks are something close to a Pro Recco team. Some might say his performance today restored their faith in the human race. To those that argue that, they are correct.

Thank you Chris for those kind and completely unsolicited words, anyway now to the summary.

We started off strong today, with Jacob scoring the first goal in the first opening attack, which we rarely do. We would go on to battle back and forth with no goals for nearly a half a quarter. With just seconds left in the first quarter, Theo fumbled the ball in front of goal, but was able to score a penalty shot.

In the second quarter, we continued to play well, with some lightning-fast passing and rock-solid defending by Ant. We went into halftime up 7-4.

The third quarter was a bit more of a challenge, as the other team started to catch up. However, we were able to hold on and keep the lead thanks to the almost clairvoyant information from Coach Pete.

Almost like some jet-powered swordfish, we would blaze ahead in the final quarter. Scoring the most goals than any quarter of the game, 4 to just the 2 from Blackpool.

What a great result! We really played like a team, and it showed. Well done everyone!

Game Stats

No.	Player	Majors	Goals
1	Mark	1
2	Chris V	1
3	Jake D		2
4	Risho		1
5	Ant K
6	Rick T
7	Chris R		3
8	Fergus C	1	2
9	Theo		6
10	Alexis
11	Gareth	1

Some favourite player moments

Aaron messed up the table - Sorry Aaron I didn't write this :(

Theos back hand which went cross cage in to the top corner of the goal.

The first goal from Jake a clean and unexpected goal.

Some great centre back work from Fergus, getting around the players multiple times and stealing the ball.

Ant was Sikkkkk at the back today, unreal. Chris V also did a brunt of the heavy lifting covering, countering and making the right pass

Thought the team did a cracking job of covering and the attacks felt coherent with the arc being formed and some brilliant goals!! Really enjoyed playing tonight!

Rick pulled off an amazing tackle with what looked like a magic slight-of-hand trick to roll the ball off of his opponent. Very impressive. Theo’s back hand shots also impressive as always.

Fergus had some amazing moments this game, one second defending pit, intercepting the ball and then driving to the other end of the pool

Mark did great in goal and was a demon when coming out of net to steal the ball.

It was a really good atmosphere and everyone was respectful to eachother, the other team and the refs, couldn't be prouder of everyone not just for performance but also for being calm and professional throughout.

Tight defense and great passing. All the goals were amazing from long snipes to upclose backhands. Mark saved several upclose calls and Rick stole the ball a few times while pushing their players out. He also assisted with some great passes both across the pool and in the pit.

Compared to the previous game we were much improved in defense, and in attack we were actually in half circle passing the ball around (!) taking good opportunities to shoot.

Great team effort and spirit. Good attack and defence. No talking back to the referees.

Raffo with an audacious backhand at the end.

Jake with some brilliant shooting.

Ant and Gareth did very well at the back.

Theo put in a lot of hard work in the hole and made a huge impact on the game.

Mark made great saves to keep us ahead

Love the game and proud to be a shark 🦈 - Love this comment

Rick was great made dispersing the ball from goal easy pretty much every time. And from there put some great balls across pool for others to score.

Ferg was a machine in put defence several time stealing the ball from front marking and then breaking away with the ball to create a counter.

Theo some great pit goals and work hopefully we can build on giving him the space to do what he does best

Ant was great in pit defence having a good tussle.

The whole team played well individually and together man ups where much better. Quick into position and then working the ball around using the clock to our advantage.

Theos backhand top corner across cage