The image of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt flinging an arrow high up in the air after winning a race has become a trademark of his success. It depicts his desire to reach the skies. Scaling the heights is his avowed target.

Neptunes WPSC are much in the same mould.

Their insatiable desire for honours is typical of a club that has won an unprecedented fifth league title in a row, their 23rd overall, and yet another double after winning the knock-out in mid-August as well as the President’s Cup earlier this summer.

Indeed, they swept the board in the 2014 summer season to win their seventh championship and fourth knock-out, including three doubles, in their ninth decade since the club was founded in 1929.

In so doing, the Balluta Bay club, with Grimaldi as new sponsors, has achieved the distinction of having the first coach ever to lead his team to five consecutive championships as well as having the first two brothers, Steve and Jordan Camilleri, to achieve this feat.

The club’s monumental fifth successive league victory has been rubberstamped by five players, captain Niki Lanzon, the Camilleri brothers, Michele Stellini, Tamas Molnar, who has now called it a day, and coach Sergey Markoch, all of whom inscribed their names on Neptunes’ fifth title on the trot.

Neptunes’ superiority over their rivals was not so much for a long bench as for the versatility of their units

The Reds’ superiority over their rivals was not so much for a long bench as for the versatility of their units.

Lanzon was the nerve-centre of a team that maintained high levels of variety, movement and physical qualities unequalled by their opponents.

Free-scoring Steve Camilleri was awesome in the eyes of opposing rearguards. Not surprisingly, he again topped the scorers’ list alongside Antonio Petkovic, of Sliema.

Goalkeeper Alan Borg Cole was inspirational behind his col-leagues’ expert blocking skills, which had Jordan Camilleri and Clint Mercieca very often alter-nating as last men.

In-form left-hander Stellini provided the firepower from the number one position alongside the versatile Hungarian pair of Peter Biros and Molnar, the former scoring in every match he played and the latter displaying versatility and qualities remi-niscent of vintage wine.

Timmy Agius and Andrew Zarb Cousin could best be described as utility players who did their job unobtrusively but efficiently while stand-in goalkeeper Bran-don Muscat, Marc Lanzon, Gabriel Mizzi and Miguel Zammit all formed part of the thin end of the squad led masterfully by Markoch and his assistant Dorian Pisani.

Such are the ambitions of the Reds that they seek to add more silverware to the club’s glittering showcase. And judging by the successes of their junior strings, coached by Ġużi Attard and Pisani, who helped their sides win three out of four titles, Neptunes’ future looks rosy.

Challengers

As for the Reds’ nearest chal-lengers, the general opinion is that both Sliema and San Ġiljan flattered to deceive despite having had a longer squad compared with that of Neptunes.

The Blues could not get going and had their pride hurt as they stumbled over too many hurdles, with several players, including John Soler, Mark Meli and Timmy Sullivan, unable to raise the game.

Their only redeeming feature was the good scoring form of Petkovic.

San Ġiljan were equally submissive, contriving to spurn some unexpected points when they faced an otherwise sturdy Sirens in the second round and eventually in the home straight.

Apart from Alexandar Radovic, Zejlko Kovacic, Matthew Zammit and to some extent Dino Zammit, their units did not deliver, to the point that their coach Sergio Afric left his post at the end of the second round.

Sirens were the surprise pack of the season, never mind their team being tagged as a work-in-progress.

Coach Bogdan Rath managed to mould together a bunch of youngsters, in goalkeeper Nicholas Grixti, Marco Grech, Zach Mizzi, John Napier, Gabriel Pace and Andrew Sammut who all derived benefit from playing alongside the experienced tandem of Christian Presciutti and Csaba Kiss, besides that of the evergreen David Cutajar.

Valletta and Exiles, two teams under reconstruction, alternated good moments with opaque ones.

The City team were quite competitive against Sliema and San Ġiljan as their charge was led by some old hands, including that of veteran Charlie Zammit, besides the Serb players, Milos Korolija and Djorde Filipovic.

Exiles, propelled by Gergely Katonas and Luka Sekulic and having David Pace Lupi and Peter Borg in fine scoring form, were soft for most of the campaign and only registered a victory against Valletta late in the season despite running some of their more-quoted opponents very close, apart from a draw against Sliema.

The fact that they retained their top-division status after their play-off against Marsascala was a crumb of satisfaction.

First division

Marsascala made sure of the title after they won their final match against Otters, thus displacing an improved Marsaxlokk from the top.

Marsascala, under the charge of Pierre Borg, also won the knock-out. They were rewarded for their better brand of water-polo and their consistency in a campaign that was replete with balanced matches.

The best that can be said about Otters and Ta’ Xbiex was that they were at times quite competitive, the former having Ivan Vuksanovic finishing as top marksman in the category with 71 goals.

All in all, it was a season which offered everything except an exciting finish to the cham-pionship race.

We had acceptable control by the referees in several matches while in others there was much to be desired. We also had rampant misbehaviour by players and supporters, with some offenders escaping scot free.

On top of that there were some inconsistencies in the way players were punished by the disciplinary commissioner as well as the occasional failure by officials to intervene in the absence of a report by the referees.

These failings ought to be addressed and the disciplinary code revised in order to have more transparency and better organisation throughout.

Roll of honour

Premier League: Neptunes.
KO: Neptunes.
President’s Cup: Neptunes.
Sports Journalists Cup: Valletta.
First Division: Marsascala.
KO: Marsascala.
Under-13: Neptunes.
Under-15: Neptunes.
Under-17: Neptunes.
Under-20: San Ġiljan.
Women’s League: Neptunes.
Women’s KO: Neptunes.

The top scorers

Premier League
Antonio Petkovic (Sliema) – 72 goals
Steve Camilleri (Neptunes) – 72
Christian Presciutti (Sirens) – 64
Peter Biros (Neptunes) – 58

First Division
Ivan Vuksanovic (Otters) – 71
Sergi Mora (Marsascala) – 66
Gergo Marnitz (Marsascala) – 50

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