After battling it out for the President's Cup, Sliema and Neptunes will be facing each other once again this weekend. Tempers do flare in such games but it's all part of the game as long as it is all over after the final whistle. However, let's all hope there will be no unsporting behaviour and comments as there were during the match for the President's Cup on May 31.

Most waterpolo teams have a physiotherapist on the bench and very few have a club doctor. However, Neptunes do have a club doctor, Stefan Camilleri. On May 31, there was an incident when Sliema were celebrating a goal they had scored while one of their players lay face down in the water. Some Sliema supporters started insulting Dr Camilleri disgustingly asking him "have you forgotten the (Hippocratic) oath you took?"

It was awful of Sliema supporters to pass such comments at Dr Camilleri. Anyone who knows the well-respected Neptunes doctor is certain he would respond immediately if he ever believed a player, from whichever side, needed treatment. It was obvious that it was the Sliema players themselves who misguided anyone watching the game with their own continuation of play while one of their own team mates was lying face down in the water.

This was a deplorable incident by the club I have been supporting all my life and very unfair on the gentlemanly Dr Camilleri. This incident and the insults thrown at Dr Camilleri show that something needs to change in waterpolo, especially during Sliema-Neptunes games.

I still cannot understand how clubs who voted in favour of foreign players, paying thousands of euros for the privilege, cannot afford a medical doctor on their bench during waterpolo games (and then insult those that do).

And I still cannot understand how the police allow the unlawful behaviour we can all see during Sliema-Neptunes games and that is souring what should be the highlight-games of the waterpolo season. When will the officials of waterpolo clubs start setting an example to the many youngsters that attend these games? May the best team win!