Summer 2014 waterpolo is back again.
Today’s dress rehearsals between champions Neptunes Grimaldi and knock-out holders, Sliema Frank Salt, for the President’s Cup and the preceding Sportswriters’ Cup match between Valletta McDonald’s and Marsascala Mor€ will be followed by the revived preliminary round league matches starting on Friday.
The prospects of another nail-biting league and cup campaign are realistically bright, especially on the back of last year’s spectacle of having both competitions decided at the death.
The new format introduced by the ASA this year makes the league competition even more crowd-pulling, not so much for the almost perfect parity between the main contenders for the title as for the fact that the new system does away with tedious dead rubbers.
The elimination of useless matches and play-offs – this system has now been scrapped in preference to more rounds – to decide the destination of the championship was criticised by many. Good sense prevailed in that we now have a full programme of valid matches which should reach a climax at the end.
Every match counts for points and positions which would determine the composition of the Premier and First Division League, with six and four teams in each category.
Moreover, the added element of points won by a team being carried forward from the preliminaries to the respective leagues with the same two teams not having to face each other again in the initial round makes for more competitiveness throughout.
Another novelty is that at the end of two rounds the Premier teams are split into the championship and relegation pools of three teams each, the top group contesting the title over two more rounds and the bottom group determining which team will face the first-placed in the First Division (played over four rounds) in a possible three-match relegation play-off.
As for the contestants, champions Neptunes, again steered by Sergey Markoch, San Ġiljan Allcare and Sliema, guided respectively by Sergio Afric and Vincze Balacz, are all confident that they can hit the jackpot.
The Balluta Bay Reds, eyeing an unprecedented fifth league title in a row, are pinning their hopes on their experienced units complemented by the Hungarian tandem of Tamas Molnar and Peter Biros (last summer with San Ġiljan), two free-scoring players of great international repute. A chink in the Neptunes armoury may be the lack of depth in their squad.
San Ġiljan, who last year missed out on the title by a whisker when losing the championship decider, will be eager to make amends this time after 20 barren years.
They too possess a valid squad where experience is blended with promising talent. Their foreigners, Aleksander Radovic (Montenegro), Aleksandar Nikolic (Serbia) and Zeljko Kovacic (Croatia), would certainly add to their potential which would make the Saints very strong candidates for major honours.
Likewise Sliema, a forward-looking team that has been replenished with a couple of local quality players to go with their established core units.
The Blues will go for the summer title buzzing with confidence after their Winter League success. They have a long squad, with several fringe players being able to enter the fray without rocking the team’s boat.
The additional expertise of their overseas players, Croatian Antonio Petkovic and American Tim Hutten will, no doubt, make Sliema serious contenders for the championship.
Sirens Ritter Sport and Exiles Ferretti are still in a transitional stage, but on a particular day they may put up a good fight against more quoted opponents.
It remains to be seen how well their youngsters respond to the influence of their foreign recruits, Csaba Kiss (Hungary) and Italian Christian Prescutti for Sirens and the Gergo Katonas (Hungary)/ Luka Sekulic (Montenegro) tandem for Exiles.
Sirens will be under the charge of Bogdan Rath and Exiles will have Maurizio Mirarchi as coach.
Newcomers Valletta
Newcomers to the top league Valletta, who have last year’s foreigners – Serbians Milos Korolija and Djordje Filipovic – on their books, will be eager to make an impact.
Valletta also have in their ranks a number of players signed from other clubs, many of whom with top league experience. Enthusiasm is not lacking and if this quality is blended with skill and opportunism, the City team may well reach the pre-season targets set by their coach Anthony Farrugia.
Given the composition of the other four teams in the preliminary round, Marsascala, Marsa-xlokk, Otters and Ta’ Xbiex, one would be justified in predicting that they will form the second-tier league.
Marsascala seem to be well-equipped to clinch the honours in the category, with Marsaxlokk Fischer, Otters Nivea and Ta’ Xbiex Amigos forming the also-rans pack.
These teams’ foreigners are: Arpad Babay, Gergo Marnitz, Sergi Mora Belmonte (Marsascala), Fulop Bence, Otto Frick (Marsaxlokk), Ivan Vuksanovic, Andrei Edward (Otters) and Milos Maksimovic and Filip Tenzera (Ta’ Xbiex).
Playing today
Valletta vs Marsascala - 18.15
Neptunes vs Sliema - 19.30