{"id":87237,"date":"2025-12-05T10:52:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87237"},"modified":"2025-12-05T10:52:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:52:01","slug":"aussie-crocs-ready-to-wreak-havoc-at-50th-water-polo-ipt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=87237","title":{"rendered":"Aussie Crocs ready to wreak havoc at 50th Water Polo IPT"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Aussie Crocs squad with head coach Simon Daley in South Africa. Photo: Aussie Crocs 2024 and 2025 South African Tour<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the standout moments from the 2024 Schools’ Water Polo South Africa (SWPSA) Inter-Provincial Tournament (IPT)<\/strong> was the Aussie Crocs’ victory over KwaZulu-Natal<\/a><\/strong> on day one.<\/p>\n

A thrilling 14-13 win for coach Simon Daley<\/strong> and his troops introduced them to the tournament with style and made everyone sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n

The boys from Queensland<\/strong> were playing in South Africa for the first time and, after that win, enjoyed a solid tournament, beating Nelson Mandela Bay<\/strong> and Buffalo City<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The visitors went down against the eventual champions, Central Gauteng<\/a> <\/strong>and Western Province<\/strong>, but showed fight, spirit, and tenacity in both outings.<\/p>\n

After that impressive debut campaign, the Aussie Crocs are back for more and will be in action at the 50th Schools\u2019 Water Polo South Africa IPT<\/a><\/strong>, which runs from 6 to 10 December in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

“This will be our second year competing for the Ubuntu Shield, and we are very excited to be back,” head coach Simon Daley<\/strong>, a South African expat, told SuperSport Schools Plus<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“This year, we’re looking forward to playing against Northern Gauteng, which we didn’t get to play last year.”<\/p>\n

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The Aussie Crocs are already enjoying their time in South Africa. Photo: Aussie Crocs 2024 and 2025 South African Tour<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The squad includes seven players who featured in last year’s campaign, with four new faces introduced to the system.<\/p>\n

The side will be captained by Joey Gallagher<\/strong>, who returns to the tournament with James Martin<\/strong>, Will Plowman<\/strong>, Jack Plowman<\/strong>, Gia Hernandez<\/strong>, Harry Colley<\/strong>, and Ben Spall<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tom Elliott<\/strong>, Riley McPharlin<\/strong>, Hudson Dikes<\/strong> and goalkeeper Rory Nielson<\/strong> are the newcomers to the event.<\/p>\n

Daley, who is a former South African international, explained how the initiative between SWPSA and the Aussie Crocs came about.<\/p>\n

“I started my polo career playing at the same tournament. I came from Eastern Gauteng and then went on to play for the national team.<\/p>\n

“I know how big this tournament is, and I know what exposure SA ‘polo doesn’t get, especially at the school level.<\/p>\n

“So, I reached out to Richard Irvine, from SWPSA and asked if they would accommodate us, and the ball got rolling from there.<\/p>\n

“It was planting a seed and wanting to see if we could take some aspiring Queensland players to SA and let them experience the country as a whole.”<\/p>\n

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Photo: Aussie Crocs 2024 and 2025 South African Tour<\/strong><\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The squad assembled in KZN for a week to conclude their training camp before the tournament. In 2024, they prepped in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n

They’ll kick off their campaign with a meeting against KZN on Saturday at 18:10 at the St David’s Marist Inanda Jubilee Pool<\/strong>. Daley expects a stiff challenge from all the teams.<\/p>\n

“I’m expecting tough competition. I know how good the teams are. This is the biggest school water polo event in the world, hands down, so it’s never easy.<\/p>\n

“We want to take that Ubuntu Shield. I know Gauteng won it last year. We lost to them in our game. They were an incredible team, and we also went down to Western Province.<\/p>\n

“It’s highly competitive, and that’s why we have seven players coming back, eager to get their hands on that shield for the first time,” he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the standout moments from the 2024 Schools’ Water Polo South Africa (SWPSA) Inter-Provincial Tournament (IPT) was the Aussie Crocs’ victory over KwaZulu-Natal on day one. A thrilling 14-13 win for coach Simon Daley and his troops introduced them to the tournament with style and made everyone sit up and take notice. The boys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":87238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}