The Sutherland Shire Water Polo Association is an association for all ages and levels of experience. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, we have a division for everyone - from U8s to U15s, Youth and Opens! We play on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons at Sutherland Leisure Centre.

No prior experience is necessary for playing.

Our Water Polo competition runs over the Spring / Summer / Autumn months. The upcoming 2025/2026 junior competition is split offering 2 competitions - one finishing before Christmas & the other resuming after Australia Day. 

Spring: September - December '25

Summer: January - March '26

Our Friday night Social Comp will start mid-October to March (with a break over Christmas/January period) 

We also offer an Autumn / Winter season which could start in either May or July (either side of the school holidays), usually for just a short 8 week competition.

Structure

The Association is composed of individual clubs. Each club is independent in terms of training times and locations et cetera, but otherwise almost all other aspects of our clubs are common.

Training for each club is conducted during the spring/summer months at Caringbah, Engadine Leisure Centres & Revesby Pool during the week (varies for each club). For more information, visit our Clubs page.

ALL GAMES ARE PLAYED AT SUTHERLAND LEISURE CENTRE

Management

The Association is managed by a Board, comprising of elected officials (Patron, President, Secretary, Treasurer and Directors). Day to day operations are run by the Operations Staff, who manage areas such as general operations and logistics, refereeing, asset management, media, and other assorted work areas.

A Typical Season

The Spring Competiton -

• U15 / U14 / U13 / U12 is a structured competition leading up til the end of the season Grand Finals
• U11 play a mix up of shortened games to give the kids a great experience in competition (not scored) - finishing with a Carnival on the Grand Final Day
• Advanced Mini's/U10 will see a new format with a 3 week training module to determine if some kids need to start in with the "All Stars"  Games will be arranged in the weeks following this.
• All Stars learn to play - is run each week in the same format with kids doing swimming drills, learning to pass & shoot & learning how to play the game. All Stars kids play in the shallow end og the Olympic Pool - can touch the bottom (not encouraged) & wear a floatation belts. 

The Summer competition

• U15 - U13 - U11 is run as combined age groups - Clubs will form new mixed teams to accommodate new members this also allows players to stop as they cannot commit to the 2 seasons.
• U10's will move into U11 mixed teams during the Summer Season.

If semi finals are conducted (dependant on number of teams in competition), divisions are broken into groups of four teams ordered by their position in the point score. The format for playing is 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3. The winning teams go through to play for Gold in the Grand Finals, and the losing teams play for Bronze on the Grand Finals Day. All teams ranked in a position after 4th still play in this format (that is, 5 vs 8, 6 vs 7) for classification results, no medals are awarded for these teams. All teams play on the Grand Final Day.

The Grand Final celebrations usually include a free sausage sizzle, fruit and drink for all players, as well as a medal presentation after each game.

If you would like to join the fun, you can find out more about how to register on our registration page. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.