The waterpolo scoring trends for the league season just over reveal the form of the contestants throughout the campaign, both on a collective as well as an individual level.
Not surprisingly, new champions Neptunes have the best figures in the top division, having scored the highest number of goals and conceded the least, for a goal difference (GD) of 121 goals.
Next come Sliema with a GD of 65, with third-placed San Ġiljan’s five making them the other team with a positive GD.
Fourth-placed Exiles have a negative tally of 25, followed by bottom team Sirens whose adverse GD is 49.
Individual charts also put Neptunes in the forefront, with Steve Camilleri and Hungarian Tamas Molnar topping the list with 61 and 51 goals respectively.
However, second-placed Sliema players do not follow suit as both John Soler and the naturalised Italian Bogdan Rath are in joint seventh place with 36 goals each.
Third in the rankings is San Ġiljan’s German player Heiko Nossek on 45, followed by Yugoslav Vasovic of Sirens (44), with the Frenchman Aurelien Cousin occupying fifth spot with 43 goals. Another Hungarian, Marthon Toth lies sixth with 42 conversions.
It is also interesting to note that besides Neptunes, there is a player from each top division team who managed to score at least once in each of the league matches. The players are Camilleri and Molnar (Neptunes), Vasovic (Sirens), Cousin (Exiles), Toth (San Ġiljan) and Rath (Sliema).
In the second division, the top scorers are Marsascala’s Milos Koralji (Serbia) with 59 goals, Hungarian Tamas Gyrovath, of Ta’ Xbiex, with 45, his compatriot Zoltan Radocz, of Otters, with 39 and Dutchman Dave Gabriel, also of Ta’ Xbiex, who lies fourth with 34 goals.
Of these players only Koralji, Gyrovath and Radocz were ever-present on the scoring list of each match. In this respect they were emulated by David Pace Lupi, of Marsaxlokk, who scored 27 goals.
It is to be noted that second division champions Marsascala played 13 matches, as did runners-up Ta’ Xbiex, while third-placed Otters and Marsaxlokk played nine each.
KO matches
The first ties from this summer’s KO competitions will be played this evening at the National Pool.
Division Two champions Marsascala start their quest for a league and cup double with a match against Otters. This programme curtain-raiser will be followed by a match-up between two Division One also-rans, Exiles and San Ġiljan.
The winners of this tie will face holders Sliema in the semi-final on Friday.
Neptunes play Sirens in the other Division One semi-final tomorrow at the end of the other last-four Division Two clash between Marsaxlokk and Ta’ Xbiex.
The two finals will be played on Sunday at 4 and 5.30 p.m.
Playing today: 6 p.m. Marsascala vs Otters; 7.15 p.m. Exiles vs San Ġiljan.