The Australian Water Polo League
and what USAWP can learn from it
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3 years ago I moved to Australia so I could keep playing the sport I love.
What I’ve seen here has changed the way I will view water polo forever. They have a completely different approach to the sport and there’s a lot that my home country could learn from it.
Here’s how the Australian Water Polo League (AWL) is structured, it’s impact, and what the United States should mimic so we can support a similar league.
Australian Water Polo League
Disclaimer: things change slightly every year, and the league was completely different ten years ago, but here’s what it looked like in 2024.
General Structure
There’s 11 Teams in the AWL.
5 in Sydney, 2 in Perth, and 1 in Brisbane, Newcastle, Adelaide, and Melbourne.
Games begin in late January and finish at the end of April.
It’s a 20 game regular season where you play every other team twice. Final regular season standings determines the top 6 teams who will compete on championship weekend.
Team Composition
AWL teams that finished in the top 6 of the previous season are allowed 2 import players. Teams who finished outside the top 6 are allowed 3.
Former, current, and future national team representatives are spread out across the country, but are most concentrated in Sydney.
The majority of players in the league are between 20-30 years old. They are usually balancing the league with their full time jobs. Some players are still working towards getting a degree.
The best youth players in surrounding areas are invited to train with their respective AWL clubs. Sometimes they can even make the game rosters.
Impact
In case you missed it, Australia shocked everyone at the Paris Olympics.
The Aussie Stingers (women’s national team) dethroned the United States, who have been one of the most dominant teams in all of sports for over a decade. They went on to fall closely to an extraordinary Spanish team, ultimately achieving a silver medal.
The Aussie Sharks (men’s national team) were disruptive on the world stage as well. Despite 10 of their 13 players being Olympic debutantes, they managed to upset powerhouses France, Hungary and Serbia. They even held Serbia, the soon-to-be champions, to 3 goals in a single match. Madness!
Without discrediting the individual performances of all the people (both in the pool and out) whose efforts actually drove the Aussies to such success, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that they couldn’t have achieved such magnificent results if it weren’t for the Australian Water Polo League.
The AWL provides a damn near professional standard of water polo for Aussies to compete in every year, and it does this despite not actually being a professional league. No, it’s not nearly at the level of the European Champions League, but the AWL provides enough of a competitive environment for Aussies to maintain and develop their abilities leading up to the Olympics. That makes it possible for Australian athletes to pursue their Olympic dreams without having to go play in Europe. They can even balance their careers with an AWL season!
Wouldn’t it be great to have something like that in the United States?
The Pyramid of Competition
This is what the United States doesn’t understand about how to create something like the AWL at home
The AWL is a semi-professional water polo league, which means nearly every single person playing is doing so voluntarily. It’s very important that the best players available want to play, because the competitive level of the league depends on it.
So how does Australia make sure there’s enough participation?
By providing a range of adult water polo leagues that can accommodate players at every level. There’s lots of adults who want to play a water polo season, but only if the conditions are right for them. After all, water polo is the LAST sport any adult would want to play if it wasn’t a fair match.
Here are just some of the benefits of providing a pyramid of competitive levels to people:
It makes playing water polo accessible to people at all levels, growing the community as a whole.
Each level of the pyramid can depend on the one beneath it to supply players of relative ability ready to fill in if/when needed.
Players naturally rise or fall to the division that suits them best, making each level as competitive as it can be.
City Comps
The AWL is the premier national competition at the top of the pyramid, but it’s the local premier leagues beneath it which make it possible. These are called “City Comps”, and are exactly what I think the United States needs.
City comps are the regional adult water polo leagues which run prior to, and alongside the AWL. Basically every major city, and even some rural areas in Australia host their own leagues. Different city comps can have a range of divisions and teams participating. Canberra for example has 2 divisions with 5 teams participating in both, while Sydney (the largest water polo city) has 7 divisions with over a dozen teams playing across them.
Every team plays one game a week, and different teams decide for themselves how often they want to train for those games. AWL teams will train 3-4 times a week, while lower division teams may train together just once a week.
Fun Fact: The Sydney Comp has over 10 teams playing in it’s 7th division. That’s over 100 players who have been playing the sport for decades, many still playing with their oldest teammates.
It’s also a Ladder
For young players, the city comps are the perfect ladder to climb to the AWL. The pyramid serves as a clear pathway for local players to become national team representatives.
If you are one of the best U18’s in your area, you should already be playing in the 1st or 2nd division of your city comp. Once you are one of the best players in your city comp, you will probably be recruited to an AWL team. If you’re at the top of the AWL, you’re likely in contention to be selected for the Aussie Sharks/Stingers.
Not everyone can play in the AWL, but the different tiers of adult water polo let young players of all ages experience a more challenging environment of experienced players.
United States League
The USAWP National League struggles because there’s nothing beneath it. There’s no tradition of adults playing competitive water polo in their areas other than a masters tournament every few months and a weekly training. There needs to be better options for the bulk of adult water polo players in the states to support the highest level.
Right now, the Los Angeles Athletic Club has organized exactly that. There’s a new “USA Premier League” being held in LA. It’s 9 games over 5 weekends to determine a champion. I’m hoping more water polo teams will follow their lead and organize their own leagues!
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