The Mermaids Water Polo Club win a silver medal after losing to Melville Marlin under 14s

The Mermaids Water Polo Club won a silver medal after being beaten by Melville Marlin under 14s at the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships late this afternoon.

The Mermaids Water Polo Club won a silver medal Australian Youth Water Polo Championships late this afternoon, beaten by the Melville Marlin under 14s.

In a fantastic decider, the bigger, more mature Marlins took the title 9-6 at Chandler.

Melville raced to a five-nil advantage by halftime, only to be challenged by the Mermaids Pink side.

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Mermaids coach Nicola Johnson said it was a mighty effort by her rookies to come second out of 34 teams.

The Mermaids Pink under 12s with fellow medal winners, bronze medallist Cronulla and gold medallist Melville Marlins at the 2020 national titles.

“To be honest we came in hoping for top eight,’’ Johnson said.

“This was a group that was smaller who had not played for long, but we topped our group and won the quarters and the semis against Cronulla.’’

Johnson said he knew Marlins were the class side of the competition but was delighted with her team’s progress.

Nicola Johnson addresses her under 14 Mermaids side after the gold medal match.

“I had seen them play all week and the size of them, the skill,’’ said she in praise of Marlins.

“But the girls came back and won the second half. They showed a lot of fight.’’

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Johnson said you could not buy the experience the girls had gained from playing in a gold medal national finals.

“I was really happy with how they went.

“They came away with a medal we were not expecting.’’

The Silver medal winning Mermaids Pink under 14 with silver medals from the nationals.

It turned into a classic grand final after Meville threatened to race away with the match after leading 5-nil at halftime.

But Mermaids’ Olivia Muir snuck two goals past the Marlins goalie early in the second half before Marlins responded, only for a third goal by Muir.

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With each goal she scored, Muir smirked out of one corner of her mouth – probably a mixture of satisfaction and relief, as Mermaids closed the gap to 6-3.

The gold medal winning Melville Marlins beat Mermaids in the under 14 gold medal match at the national titles in Brisbane, 2020.

Young Claire McCullouch also scored two goals in the second half for Mermaids to reduce the score to 8-6, while Sienna Owen was Mermaid’s other goal scorer.

Johnson now has her Mermaids under 16 and under 12 girls, and also the under 12 boys in action for the rest of this week, with the finals next week.