Aqualink Box Hill home of underwater rugby club Victoria Seadragons

Athletes from across Melbourne gather in Whitehorse each week to play a “weird and wonderful sport” you probably didn’t know existed.

Victoria’s inaugural underwater rugby club is based in Box Hill. Photo: Marcia Riederer

Athletes from across Melbourne gather in Whitehorse each week to play a “weird and wonderful sport” you probably didn’t know existed.

Box Hill is home to Victoria’s inaugural and largest underwater rugby club.

More than 40 regular players convene at Aqualink Box Hill on Tuesdays and Thursdays and in Ringwood on Wednesdays to share in the fun and community of the wacky sport.

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‘Participants drive from as far as Mount Eliza to be part of the Victoria Seadragons — some have even moved to Australia from Colombia, where underwater rugby is a popular pastime.

For those who are unfamiliar with the sport, it’s played by two teams, both made up of three pairs.

Underwater rugby is a contact sport. Photo: Marcia Riederer

Each team has someone underwater playing as either a forward, back or goalie, while their partner acts as their sub, waiting at the pool’s surface.

The game is a high-contact sport.

Players grab and wrestle each other as they try to get their ball into the other team’s basket.

The ball isn’t a normal one.

It’s filled with salt to make it negatively buoyant, meaning it travels a few metres before sinking to the floor.

Seadragon Sarah McCarthy said the sport was “challenging in a really different way” to other sports because play was “three-dimensional”.

The sport fosters a strong sense of community among players.

“You can pass up and down, in front and behind,” she said.

“If you’re not concentrating you can get disorientated really quickly.”

She said players having to hold their breath added another layer of difficulty, on top of the fact that players could only communicate visually.

“You can’t speak, so you have to know your team really well.”

Ms McCarthy loves the complex game, but said her favourite aspect of underwater rugby was actually out of the water.

The sport fosters a strong sense of community because of its rarity.

As there are only seven underwater rugby clubs in Australia, clubs have to travel interstate to compete against one another.

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The Victoria Seadragons tour other capital cities several times a year to play tournaments.

They play all weekend and typically stay together, socialising with other teams in between games. “You make friends from all over Australia,” she said.

Ms McCarthy said there was a strong sense of community among players universally, with people regularly getting in contact through social media forums ahead of tournaments.

She’s looking forward to meeting more players from across the world in Austria in July, having been selected as one of the 15 women who will represent Australia at the Underwater Rugby World Championships.

Ms McCarthy’s said her club had the highest proportion of female players selected for the games in Australia, with five women getting ready to head over, as well as three men.

The Victoria Seadragons play at Aqualink Box Hill.

She said the one downfall of the sport was the large expenses that came with all the travel.

The club is trying to help the representatives by fundraising in the lead up to the world games.

Ms McCarthy said anyone interested was welcome to join the Victoria Seadragons community and get in on the fun.

“We’re always trying to get more people,” she said.

The unisex club’s players range from 18 to 59 years old and come from all sporting backgrounds, with varying abilities.

Interested players should contact the club on [e-mail]