1 . The ADF was represented by a women's and men's water polo teams at The Arafura Games held in Darwin on the 22-29 May 1999.  These games are also held in conjunction with The Australian Country Water Polo Championships.  It is the highest level a member represents the ADF and the competition proved to be second to none.  Experience gained by the respective players was invaluable and has certainly encouraged all to continue striving for this very high level in years to come.

 2.            The two teams had some new faces, as well as those more experienced, and both performed very well throughout the competition.  The women were under strength due to a number of key players pulling out at the last minute.  However strong performances from Belinda Watts at centre back and Carol Young in goals held the scores down.  The women were defeated in all their games but managed to pressure Northern Territory (NT) into a close and exciting game, eventually going down by only a few goals.

 3.            The men's team came away with the best result to date, in a competition that was very close.  Their 6th place out of 7 was by no way indicative of the performance.  Having drawn with Queensland in the first game 6 all, beating NT 9-5 and minimising the goals scored by NSW and WA (gold and silver medallists) the stage was set for a genuine tussle for 3rd place.  Unfortunately the ADF went down to the Malaysian and Philippine National teams by 1 goal.  If we came out with a win in either of those games we would have secured 3rd spot and guaranteed coming at least 4th overall.  Scott Pratt had an outstanding competition keeping goal, as did Adrian Luke and Phil Fletcher our main goal scorers.  The latter two making the Australian Country Team.  The Games also revealed a class player in the making with Lincoln Steele, and the usual strong performances from Nigel Jackson and John Preston.

 4.            The Arafura Games is the highlight of any Service water polo player and is the culmination of a number of years of hard work in and out of the pool. 1999 has been a very successful year so far, built on by those training years.  Striving to compete at the highest level such as the Arafura games and the Australian Country Championships maintains that want to perform.  If the nucleus of the teams that went to Darwin remain then the Australian Countries held in Kalgoorlie in April 2000 will prove even more successful.

 J.Z. HARRISON