What do you think of each team's style of play.

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

What do you think of the style of play of each national team - men, women, U21 etc ? Either as a spectator watching the game, or playing against them.

I'll be controversial to kick it off!

The Australian men seem to have a reputation of playing very hard, busting boats. (But we play that way back home with no problem. We just build stronger kayaks). Seems the Europeans are just not up to that type of aggressive play!

Conversely, in the past at least, The German play has been boringly possessive. And the women play obstruction way beyond the rules. Is it still the same ?

Brits have some brillian t players, but no idea of real team play ?

So which teams do love, which do you hate, and which do you love-to-hate ?

[conor]

I guess you really want to stir the feeling with this post!!

I suppose you could add the Belgians and their lack of any acknowledgement of paddle fouls in their play.

[clyde]

I'd say, the following with respect to Men's National teams:-

Australia
Average individual skills with great team skills.
As a team they seem to adopt an open playing position to save worrying about positional play. Will it work this year ?

GB
Very highly skilled individuals who struggle to play together as a team - will this change ? Many new faces this year could make all the difference.

France
Skillfully quick with the kayak and quick shooters usually prefereing to shoot from inside the zone.
Usually consistently high results.

Germany
Traditionally very disciplined zone defending but now progressivly moving to a more chasing game with limited experiance of 5 Out.
One of the top teams in Europe who will improve to a new high level for their National playing style.

Netherlands
Fast breaking, big shooting, with great team play.
Always seem to have disapointing results, but I think this could be their year.

Italy
Never quite made it despite a skilful team. Perhaps too many heros. Playing as a real time with one game plan would make all the difference.
This could be their weakest individually skilled team ever, which might just make them play better as a team.

Denmark
Well GB, you better be ready for a hiding !!!

How about that for starters ?
Clyde

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

It does nothing for the sport to air sameless damaging of other peoples boats in a public forum. Reading that and knowing what a new boat costs would you want to play against a team like that. If thats the attitude at the top of the sport people will realise that and play in that manner if they are so inclined or not at all if they value their money. I'm sure the game got out of hand and there ended up being fault on all sides but surely there is a better place to discuss this like with the referee and the competition organiser - p.Oleary

Just love it!!!
The Australian national teams play to win! We have always played hard. Actually, at home we play even harder ! (In the original ICF rules we conceded taking out our 90degree tackles - which, when you have two tacklers on opposite sides can provide a spectacular result)

But we build kayaks to take the heat! Remember, our guys will have played 3 international competitions in these kayaks even before they get to Essen, plus endless training in Europe. With no spare kayaks to be had at the last minute. No asking our sponsor to just send over a few spare kayaks when we break some!

Seems you guys haven't got the message yet that every possible legal advantage must be used to win. Pure agression has it's place in a World Championships. What doesn't have it's place is inferior equipment, or a less than full-on commitment and attitude.

Remember, we want this to be a spectator sport. Absolute man-on-man contest is a great part of what it's about. Probably why Australia do so well in so many sports.

And you won't find anyone friendlier after the game than the Aussie teams. And willing to help pretty much anyone who want's to learn about how to go about winning, instead of worrying about building the very latest lightest kayaks.
But equally, I'm sure our teams have plenty to learn about skill and finesse too.

As to keeping the problem hidden! That just leads to behind closed doors dirty deals. Discuss it out in the open every time.

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

Some Europeans worry about Australia breaking kayaks.

We worry about having fingers mangled by illegal paddle use, faces smahed by paddles etc.

So which should we worry more about - real injuries to people, or damage to inferior built kayaks ?

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

OK, you folks who are getting to see the games. Share your comments on each team with us pleeeeeease! :D :D :D

Or those who are at home but speaking by phone with others over there, let's have your second hand reports.

And is anyone receiving private emails they might like to share with us (at least, the bits related to the play!) ?

I know I should have gone to watch, but .... it's a bit hard to justify the expense. Will save the money up to support the kids if they want to try to get into a team sometime to compete. And then, no doubt, they'll forget to ever ring or e-mail us!!!. But, we will be able to call them on the mobile.

Mind you, by the time they are old enough, we'll hopefully be able to watch the games via Web-TV. My god, how will I survive watching WEb-TV for a whole week?

Or, at the very least, the organisers might be better at putting out news (Wonder how the wonderful Press Centre is going ?????:thumbdown

[p.oleary]

The Danes put up hell of a fight against GB in the mens cojmpetition. When I say a hell of a fight I mean in defence. They worked hard in a very ordered and disciplined defence but what happened when they got the ball. Attack was not on the plan if they retrieved the ball they shot for the goal. The defence never broke ranks the person with the ball just took a shot. Most didn't reach the far endline and none scored. This game was a exercise in defence keeping the score as low as possible and frustrate the opposition. They succeeded (Mike Moffit when apoplectic for five minutes and then went quiet a sure sign that the team is in for some doing over after the game) but their lack of an attack mean't they didn't score. Denmark with an attack would be a force but they have a ways to go.

well done in the game Denmark

Patrick

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

My guess is that the coach had "conceded" the game against GB, but wanted to keep the goal count down in case in the end the ranking was to be decided on Goal Difference.

Or it might have been just a special exercise to prove a point. I can remember my run-of-the-mill team playing one of the World class Aussoe champion teams. We set out to just defend, and held them to something ridiculoous like 1-0. Boy, were they MAD. Just furious with themselves and each other. It was quite amusing really. Probably more satisfying than playing a more normal game and losing perhaps 10-2, or worse.

If you only defend, and have the discipline to stick to it, you can keep out almost any team - most of the time. It's when you actually try to win the ball, and mount an attack, that you are taking risks.

[Scott M]

I have the inside track on the Aussie laides and the message is "Watch out world"!

The Australian ladies have always been a force to be reckoned with several World Championships under their belt, however with the last championships bitterly dissapointing results, NOW THEY ARE REALLY MAD.

I have never seen the Australian laides train so hard for a competition. However the biggest difference is their foucs on playing in open competitions and developing a playing style modeled on the mens game. Hard, fast and highly skilful. These ladies are battle hardned and are blasting through the competition.

Latest results, a 3-1 thumping of Germany the number one ranked team. Which poor country gets to paly them next? Who cares, bring it on!

[Scott M]

As with all opinions there are moderate, intermediate and extreme views and the nice thing about these discussions is that you can express your views. Having said that, it is important to remember that an individuals point of view can not be taken as representative of their country.

So, here's my point of view based on my experience as member of the Australian national team from 1989-1994 and 1994 World Champion.

There are two points that I think are worth noting here:
- Playing and referring norms
- Level of competition


Playing and referring norms
---------------------------------
I have played the French team in previous years and I can assure you that the French team were giving as good as they were getting in their own style.

The funny thing is that the first thing that every Australian says after their first game against a European team is "I can't believe how much they cheat!" and I'm sure the experience is similar the first time a European plays an Australian team :p . It is just a question of what you are used to and what the referees are used to considering as 'acceptable play'.


Level of competition
--------------------------
The compeition that the game under discussion was played in was an international competition used as preparation for the World Championships. It was not a beginners training match.

Brett Houghton sums it up well with his motto of "Go hard or go home" and for me hard is about maximising all of your advantages and exploiting your competitors weaknesses

This was the biggest lesson for me to learn in my lead up to winning the 1994 World Championships. When you and your team mates have invested years and many $ (remeber that in those days all Australian team members were self funded), backing away from an opportunity to exploit an opponents weakness is not an option.


In summary, it's not about cheating, it's about competing.

:wavey:

[clyde]

It's so interesting to read some of these comments after the world champs has passed.

Many people have asked me about what was going on.

Please remember that the Danish as a nation is a novice in comparison to even the likes of Brazil, Canada and the US who have traditionally filled the lower ranking positions.

Since we had already lost to Brazil and were facing playing GB we had to decide what was the best for Danish polo. Had we drawn against Brazil Goal Difference against GB would certainly be an issue.

As a nation we had to accept that we needed to learn from every experiance. Playing a full on game against GB would serve little other than to see how a team can easily fast break against you when you make a mistake outside their defending zone while attacking.

In principle you can't defend you own goal if you are not in front of it - except say 5-out.

So we decided to accept the limitations of our in-experiance and just set up an exercise in defending. There were several times when 2-3 passes lead to a long shot on GB's goal - which they really should have defended.

Our objective was successful as on completiton of the 1st half we were only 2-0 down. I fully anticipated GB being angry at this and that they would be hungry for more and was not disapointed in their response.
But I have to say, the way in which they tried to attack our defence in the 2nd half flattened it and made it possibily even harder to score the way they wanted - still they scored another 4 goals.

I'm sure the GB coaches were disapointed in our style of play for that game but wonder what they expected - other than a goal fest' of course !

I would also like to point out the fantastic support of the Australians who supported us to the hilt with jeers and boos which seem to wind up GB much more than we alone were capable of.

Very sporting - a credit to your sporting nation !!!
NOT
Clyde

[Djorre]

You have to be honest too clyde,

looking at it from a spectators' view the game simply was a laugh in the beginning but quickly became rather embarassing.

I think you remember the highly debated on 0-0 draw-game between Germany and Italy at the worlds in Brasil (which knocked Australia out) with exactly one (!) shot in the final second.

If I'm correct, you too were one of the many protesting again this kind of anti-play. (so was I as a matter of fact)

I have to say, when you were looking at the game from the stands I didn't see a lot of difference beween this game and the one I saw in Brasil.

(maybe being in the tension of the game, this wasn't so obvious)

[RB-Ex-MrPolo]

Given the relative status of Denamrk vs GB, compared with ITaly vs Germany.

And the end result of 6-0 ? vs 0-0

How can you not see the difference ???

[Alan Vessey]

So if GB have no idea of team play, how come they have just won the Worlds again?

[Djorre]

RB,

I meant the game from the Danish side looked as much like anti-tactics as did the game from the German and Italian sides at the time.

Luckily enough GB made an effort to at least make it a game of polo.

Looking at the 6-0 end-scores the anti tactics didn't have quite the desired effect did they, so why ruining a game for a few goals less instead of just at least playing your best. After all, the Danish had a good team and I don't think they would have done a lot worse if they'd been attacking too.

I just thought it was a bit of a waste to be playing like that, ...
no offence to anybody.