Champions Neptunes Emirates will be seeking to get their title defence off to a good start this evening when they play Exiles Ferretti in the opening match of the 2013 Premier Division at the National Pool, Tal-Qroqq.

The Reds won the last three national championships in suc-cession and they’re favourites to make it four in a row, showing they’re still the team to beat last week when they outsmarted rivals Sliema Frank Salt Real Estate in the summer curtain-raiser – the President’s Cup – 9-5.

Shrewd Russian Sergei Markoch will again be Neptunes’ coach and with him around the champions know they have an added asset to showcase their skills while introducing some new faces from the junior ranks in the first team.

Steve Camilleri and foreign players Tamas Molnar (Hungary) and Alexander Ciric (Serbia) will again provide the firepower for the Reds upfront as new signing Alan Borg Cole proved his worth in goal in the derby last week.

Today, Borg Cole will be facing his former club Exiles who filled his void in goal with the signing of Ian Bugeja from Neptunes in the off-season.

Exiles start the league trek with modest ambitions.

Coach Aurelien Cousin’s services were retained for another season and the foreigners en-gaged for the championship will be Montenegro’s Aleksander Radovic, Romain Blary, of France, and Vojslav Cupic, of Serbia.

Sliema and San Ġiljan Sir Alex will be the other two main challengers for the honours this summer.

They get their league calendar going with a clash against each other in tomorrow’s top match.

The Blues are eager to halt Neptunes’ dominance in the league but Sergio Afric’s team will have to work harder to reach their objectives this summer as the President’s Cup match showed they’re still a few notches behind the Reds in terms of quality and fitness.

With Karl Izzo as coach, San Ġiljan are expected to continue with the good work accom-plished last year.

The Saints have added a couple of interesting signings from the local scene and top level foreigners Peter Biros and Marko Avramovic should both contri-bute to help the side claim the league title for the first time since 1995.

Meanwhile, the first match from the five-team First Division is also in store today as Valletta United play Marsaxlokk.

The Citizens are bracketed among the favourites to win the championship and Anthony Farrugia’s team lived up to their billing last week when beating direct contenders Marsascala Mor€ 14-7 in the Sportswriters Cup final.

Marsascala play Ta’ Xbiex Amigos tomorrow looking to forget all about the cup upset and putting their campaign back on track with a win.

Open day

Today, Neptunes WPSC will be holding an Open Day for boys and girls who are interested in enrolling for the summer swimming and waterpolo schools to start at the beginning of July at the club in Balluta Bay.

The main objective of this activity is to give children a try at the sport before enrolling in the nurseries.

As far as the swimming school is concerned, boys and girls will be able to join a lesson today between 10am and 2pm free of charge.

Sessions will be run every half an hour under the supervision of the club’s qualified swimming and waterpolo coaches.

Fixtures

Playing today

18.00 Marsaxlokk vs Valletta; 19.15 Exiles vs Neptunes.

Tomorrow

16.45 ASA Under-17 vs Otters; 18.00 Marsascala vs Ta’ Xbiex; 19.15 Sliema vs San Ġiljan.

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