Canoe Polo: Kiwis swamp Aussies in Oceania battle

Canoe polo national reps Ryan Warren (left), Jed Graham and Alexia Hinton celebrate at Pandora Pond after six of seven New Zealand teams overwhelmed Australia a fortnight ago near Melbourne. Photo / Warren Buckland

It is not always easy to come away with a win in a sport when you are up against the Australians.

Just ask the cricketers, hockey players (women) and netballers.

But canoe polo has emphatically broken that trend with a resounding victory over the Ockers during the Oceania Championship in Nagambie, a 1.5-hour drive north of Melbourne.

"We won six out of the seven categories," says national senior men's captain, Jed Graham, of Napier, after the two-year champs was staged from April 9-11.

The senior men, under-18 men/women, under-21 men/women and the Masters over-45 men clinched gold while the senior women lost 3-0 to the Aussies in the final.

"The smallest margin, apart from the senior women, was by five goals."

They returned with the overall silverware, The Julian Carter Memorial Cup, which the Aussies won in 2013.

"It's a testament to our overall development because we're very strong in our age group here so it's a flow on to the senior levels," says Graham, who has been in the team since 2009 but only took over captaincy this year.

Eleven of the squad members from the various teams are from the Bay. Younger brother Mitchell Graham (Christchurch), Alex Loen (Auckland), Nevin Hadley, Sam Hapeta, Jason Dalziel, Aaron Crabb and Matthew Keong (all of Palmerston North) are in the senior men's team.

Hadley and Hapeta scored the goals in the senior Kiwis' 2-1 win over the Aussies in the final.

Jed Graham says enjoyment is a pivotal factor in their success.

"Leading up to competitions we try to have training camps, typically in Palmerston North, once a month."

Hawke's Bay, he says, traditionally provides a solid foundation for nurturing international-class players.

However, the province struggles to retain talent because players tend to gravitate to the metropolitan centres where they can attend universities.

The New Zealand representatives are now focusing on competing at the World Championship in Syracuse, Sicily, in August next year.

"It'll be the end of the European summer there so we'll be playing over five days," Graham says, adding they will embark on a month-long tour of Europe to prepare for the worlds.

"The tour will cost us around $10,000 a player and we don't get government funding because we're a minority sport," he says, keen to talk to potential financial sponsors.

Graham's father, John, a former PE teacher, honed his skills with "a good attitude and was good at dealing with young guys".