The 2008-09 season was very successful for the NSW men’s age group teams.
In September the under 16’s were conducted in Perth and although dropping a game to Qld. in the rounds after watching a video of the game the mistakes were rectified and the team went on to win the Championship playing clinical but attractive polo.
In January the under 20’s were played in Sydney and I was concerned that the team would be underdone as a unit for a variety of reasons which only allowed two training sessions as a team prior to the start of the Championships. To the boys credit they quickly came together as a unit and won convincingly.
In April the under 18’s were played in Melbourne and from reports I received it appeared WA; with the legendary Tom Hoad coaching; were firm favorites with Qld. also seeming to be very formidable. WA went through the rounds undefeated which left us to play a semi final against Qld. The feature of this game was the number of Major fouls called by the referees, by far the highest called in any game of the tournament. To the boys credit they saved 12 out of 15 to win the game. The final against WA was a great game and at one stage in the 4th.1/4 they led by 2 , however the scores were level at full time and again after extra time, resulting in a penalty shoot out in which we were able to prevail.
My special thanks to Phil DeGail  16’s & 18’s manager for his untiring efforts, Chris Harrison 20’s manager for sharing his playing experiences with the lads, and Maurice Eames for always being there.

How many national titles have you won:
I haven’t kept count but I think it is 30 ranging from Men’s 16’, 18s, 20s, opens, clubs,
Women’s open, 16s, and clubs.

When did your career start in coaching?
I was appointed to coach the NSW men’s team for the 1973 championships, which was my first serious water polo coaching position.
I wanted to train the team five mornings at Ashfield pool from 6am-7.30am but was told by previous coaches that it could not be done. “It was” as well as Saturdays at Watson’s Bay 1:00pm- 4:00pm followed by a team BBQ and Sundays at Balmain 9:00am-11:00am. This gave the team seven sessions a week together and did not interfere with any club training and ensured there was great team harmony.
The team was undefeated in the Championships and formed the nucleus of NSW teams for many years to come.

What is your current position?
For the past 10 years I have been coaching at the NSW Institute of Sport, firstly running the men’s program, but now I am in charge of the Emerging Athlete Program, which is very exciting as I have a squad of 30 boys and girls aged between 13 and 16 who come to the pool three mornings a week between 5:00-7:00 am and learn about dry land conditioning, swimming fitness, basic skills and game situations.

What advancements have you noticed in the sport?
When I started playing water polo there were leather balls, which became waterlogged in a fairly short space of time, after a goal was scored each team went back to their respective goal lines and re-swam for the ball, the game was prop and cop, when a foul was whistled all play stopped supposedly and if you didn’t duck you copped, there were only seven players on the team, and the game was played in two halves.
Today’s game is far advanced from the way it used to be played. Better equipment, 13 players on a team, four quarters, the players are faster, fitter and more skilful.
However, the cornerstone rules of the game are still the same with only different interpretations applying depending on who you are playing, where you are playing and who the referee is.

Who have been the best players to go through your coaching?
This always is a difficult question for any coach to answer as invariably there is a name left out and that person is not happy. However after four decades in the hot seat here goes — Charles Turner, Andrew Kerr, David Woods, Randall Goff, Chris Wybrow, Peter Montgomery, Bob Bryant, Michael Turner, Geoff Clark, Daniel Marsden, Paul Oberman, Nathan Thomas, Craig Miller, Grant Waterman, Gavin Woods, Thomas Whalan.
Taryn Woods, Bronwyn Mayer, Yvette Higgins, Simone Hankin, Debbie Watson.
I will add three for future reference, Aiden Roach, Chris Dyson, and James Clarke.

There's a rumour that you made boys train on Christmas Day. Is it true?
Christmas Day is a myth, however, there were a couple of New Years' Day 6:00am starts at which the first one there was a lot of fairly sick and sorry lads. A 10km swim set sent them home feeling better than when they arrived. There was no such problem again.

Why is NSW so dominant in the sport?
Having close to 50% of registered water polo players in NSW does give us an advantage, however, getting out and about to see what talent is around outside of the normal club competitions, (i.e.) schools (private & public), country and the odd swim squad assists in talent identification.
There are coaches for the various programs that are run throughout the year.
The TAP camp runs for a week in the May school holidays and has 40 girls and 40 boys living in at Narrabeen.
The EAP program has been explained.
The Youth Development Group is similar to the EAP but a different age group.
The NSWIS squads then take the cream of the talent.
All of this is not possible without the dedication of the athletes and the parents.

List your involvement with national teams/tours.refereeing etc
I was lucky enough to be employed by an Italian company whose CEO loved water polo and knew Gianni Lonzi, which made it easier for me to tour with the men’s team in 1981, 82 and 83 as both manager and referee. The 82 & 83 tours were long 12 & 14-week hauls where the team trained & played against European club & National teams when & where they were required. This was in exchange for food & lodging, it was certainly a great experience one I would not have missed for the world. We called them Tom’s Terrific Tours, never quite sure where we were going to finish up or which method of transport was going to get us there.
Naturally there are many stories to come out of these tours but as the old saying goes “What goes on tour stays on tour”

In 1987 I was coach of the national U20 team to play in the World championships in Brazil. The preparation consisted of final team selections at the AIS, five days in USA, & onto Brazil — hardly an ideal start to play the best teams in the world. The team finished 9th.
This was not a true indication of the quality of the players in the team.
Seven of the team went on to play in the Olympics.
1989 saw me as national 20s coach again for the Championships in France.
Once again we had to face the best in the world with very limited preparation.
Without going into further details we finished 8th.

My services were not required for the1991 tour and on hearing this New Zealand invited me to coach them. The preparation was different with two solid weeks of twice a day hard sessions and then up to Calgary for 10 days to train with the Canadian & Australian teams.
In NZ’s final game of the championships the team decided to do the Haka. The Canadians lined up to watch but made a dreadful mistake of laughing as it was performed. I quickly went to the Canadian coach to tell him they had made a big mistake & suggested an apology to the NZ captain would save them some grief, none was forthcoming.
I saw nothing untoward but three Canadians refused to get back in the water after halftime.
New Zealand had their best ever result finishing 12th.