Statistical overview of awards

Steve Camilleri’s 2012 Waterpolo Player of the Year award is the second successive honour of the Neptunes goleador after he won it for the first time in 2007.

Few may know that this award has quite a long and chequered past, with several top players gracing the recipients’ list. In fact, the player of the year history has surpassed the four-decade mark, having this year reached the 43rd edition since this honour was first bestowed in 1970.

The first winner was Ġużi Attard, of Valletta WPC.

So far, 25 players representing seven clubs have been named player of the year.

Marco Manara, Sliema ASC’s icon in his heydays, heads an elite list of six players who have landed the honour at least three times.

Manara won it five times over an impressive span of 12 years between 1981 and 1992. He is followed by Jonathan Valletta with four over 11 years. Then come Dirk Dowling (over seven years) and Kurt Dowling with three each, the latter being the only player who won this award three times in succession.

The current crop of players each on the treble mark include John Soler (spanning nine years) and the 25-year-old Neptunes’ player Camilleri who has now extended his successes over a six-year period since 2007 and is a good bet to increase this tally.

Other players with more than one award are Stephen Rizzo, Paul Privitera and Niki Lanzon with two each. The array of 25 is completed with 16 more players with one honour each.

It is to be noted that there are only three goalkeepers from this list, Patrick Cassar (Marsascala), Adrian Cachia (Neptunes) and Joe Caruana Dingli (Valletta).

On a club level, Sliema are the most successful, with their players winning the honour 14 times, followed by Neptunes, nine, Sirens and Valletta, seven each, San Ġiljan, four, and Birżebbuġa and Marsa-scala one each.

The Blues have seven different players in the list, then come Neptunes with six, Sirens and Valletta (four each), San Ġiljan with two, and Birżebbuġa and Marsascala with one player each.

Certainly this prestigious prize, as in all other sports disciplines, should be a source of incentive for players to perform to the best of their ability and with sporting dignity.

As was suggested earlier, such waterpolo annual national awards as well as prizes for top scorers should be extended to the players in the junior categories.

This would be a further incentive for younger performers to excel in this sport.