‘We were in it’: Aussie Sharks grow in confidence despite losing Olympics opener to Spain

The Sharks were in with a shot of causing an upset in their opening game of the Paris Olympics. But after finding a bit of confidence in the pool, they know there’s even tougher challenges awaiting them.

The Aussie Sharks are refusing to be overawed by some of their more-fancied opponents and will take plenty of confidence out of their first-up loss to Spain at the Paris Olympics.

The Australians fell 9-5 to Spain on Sunday morning but showcased some impressive defensive resolve throughout the match.

Their next game on Tuesday is against reigning Olympic champions Serbia, while their pool group also includes perennial powerhouse Hungary. Adopting the underdog status might be expected, but it’s not something the Aussies are buying into.

“I think in sport we always look to see what a group of death is,” Sharks captain Nathan Power said.

“In water polo, we’ve got two groups and I’d say both are groups of death really. There are 12 incredible teams here, and in our group six incredible teams.

“So for us, we now reset, we take the positives and we look forward to what should be really fun match-ups with Serbia the reigning champions, France the home team, Hungary who are historically the best team in our sport and Japan who are probably the team we play against the most.”

The Aussies only converted five chances and left plenty of goals in the pool. Picture: Getty Images

The key for the Australians will be to capitalise on the momentum they were able to build in defence. The Sharks made repeated stops in the first half against Spain but never converted those opportunities in attack, particularly when Spain had players excluded.

Power knows that’s part of the arm-wrestle of Olympic water polo, but the team will make an effort to prioritise their attack for the remaining matches.

“When you think about Spain, they’re one of the most well-rounded teams here,” Power said. “Playing them is like a game of chess, it takes a full game.

“For us today, we had really long periods where we were in it. We had some really great defence and it’s probably a couple of momentary lapses … which gave them a goal here or there.

“Hopefully we can get better finishing on some of our opportunities because I think we had moments today where one or two more goals for us, one or two less for them, the game looks different.

“We can take a lot of confidence in the fact we were grinding with them. At times it looked like our energy was really starting to sap them a bit. So I think there’s a lot of very encouraging signs as we try to get through the rest of the group stage.”

Originally published as ‘We were in it’: Aussie Sharks grow in confidence despite losing Olympics opener to Spain