Aussie water polo legend comments on rule evolution
Australian Tom Hoad holds a special place on the topography of the Water Polo Australia Ltd landscape, being its patron, life member, legend and hall of fame inductee. He is also at the pinnacle of aquatics, having been inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) in 2011 as a contributor and helped run […]
Australian Tom Hoad holds a special place on the topography of the Water Polo Australia Ltd landscape, being its patron, life member, legend and hall of fame inductee.
He is also at the pinnacle of aquatics, having been inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) in 2011 as a contributor and helped run two FINA World Championships (1991 and 1998).
He has contributed much to the sport since initially being selected for the 1960 Rome Olympics as a player, moving into a coaching role for the four Olympics after his playing years and then coaching all manner of teams to the current day as he looks after school kids in their development.
Just known as “Tom” by youngsters and peers alike, the multi-linguist has seen it all and been involved in the development of the rules at one stage. He has been consulted often by FINA and international coaches and referees on what he thinks about the rules.
Current Rules
Scoring Goals asked him what he thought of the current batch of rules.
“With regard to the new changes, which were instigated controversially, I think they are better than the old rules.
“The shortening the pool is an improvement, allowing more goals. It does away with transition time. (With the 30m pool) television cameras focused on the goalkeeper holding the ball. There was no activity on the ball and the goalkeeper would hold the ball for five-six seconds before making the release pass. It’s more television appropriate now.
“In Australia, we’ve played those rules (25 seconds possession and 15 seconds for the corner restart) and it’s made the extra-man (situation) much shorter and means they have to shoot quicker. More turnovers and much faster. Both teams have more opportunities to score goals, which means more players have to be more proficient at shooting.
“The Australian-New Zealand (World Aquatics Championships Oceania qualification series for men in April) games were very exciting. Shooting and ball handling are far more valuable than ever before,” Hoad said.
Image Source: Tom Hoad in 2025/Russell McKinnon/World Aquatics
Rule Evolution
Two sets of rules were considered post-World War II with a South American version and a European set, with Europe winning the debate. Former United States of America Water Polo and former ISHOF CEO Bruce Wigo is an ardent fan of changing rules for the better and has stated in the past that the South American version should have held precedence.
Hoad said that these rules meant players could have five ordinary fouls before being sent from the match, much like basketball, meaning no-one wanted to foul, thus reducing referee whistles. It made the game far more less contact, which I think is an important factor.
Debate in FINA at the time decided between how the Europeans were playing it and how the Americans were playing it.
As the sport was more popular in Europe in places like Sweden, France, Belgium and England where it began, Europe decided it was its decision, which Wigo maintains was the wrong decision.
“His logic makes sense to me,” Hoad said.
1950s And Beyond
“One of the major changes was that on the referee’s whistle you had to stop. That was then replaced with the game becoming much more mobile.
“There were a few limitations that the FINA Bureau gradually changed. One was with some logic behind it. Throw the ball over halfway. Before that you couldn’t. You played a two-two-two and because the goalkeeper couldn’t go over halfway, we had designated backs and designated forwards.”
Hoad travelled to Budapest in 1962, and enthused over the development of the sport there because of the thermal water.
“The Csaszar-Komjadi Sportuszoda pool was not chlorinated or filtered but was warm all year round. It was the first water polo-specific built pool in 1927. They built the indoor pool at Margaret Island in 1930 and the outdoor pool was filled with thermal water. Green thermal water. It was a huge advantage.”
He spoke also of the three main Hungarian pools in Szentes, Szeged, and Szolnok while many other towns received a lot of thermal baths.
“It was one of the reasons Hungary, a landlocked country, became so proficient in water polo.
“When a Croatian, Bata Orlic, who hailed from Dubrovnik, saw what was available in Hungary, he insisted that Yugoslavia played all-year round when he returned as director of Yugoslav water polo.
“The Hungarians always beat Yugoslavia even though there was a lot of water polo played along the coast.
“The rules in first division in Yugoslavia stated that unless you had access to an indoor pool all year round, you could not play in first division. The idea was so they could beat the Hungarians, which they eventually did.
“Korcula had only an outdoor pool and won the Yugoslav premiership that year, including (Olympic silver medallist) Bobo Trifunovic, who coached in Perth.
“Korcula maintained it was a Serbian plot to get them out of the competition, which it wasn’t. That was the beginning of playing 12 months a year,” Hoad said. “Bit by bit, Yugoslavia improved their world status.”
FINA slowly made changes with the biggest following the European Championships in Utrecht in 1967. The public did not like seeing six playing on five. They introduced a foul after a foul. If you had three penalty points you were excluded. It was introduced without trialling. I said we should trial it first. It ended up being a disaster punishment that did not fit the crime. (You accumulated three points and then you got a penalty).
Image Source: Tom Hoad in 1994/Russell McKinnon/World Aquatics
“You could stop a certain goal (by pulling the leg of a counter-attacker) and only gained a third of a point penalty,” Hoad said.
“This rule was thrown out at the first opportunity and there was a lot of debate about it. There was nobody who was vehement that it should remain.”
Speeding forward to current times, Hoad said that “dead time” is reduced and swimming reduced.
The recent introduction of the shorter pool length and possession times for men have been greeted warmly by Hoad and laments that European competitions have not had a chance to play these rules. Only European men’s teams contesting the 2025 World Cup had a chance to play these new rules.
He pointed to the upcoming World Aquatics Championships in Singapore where the rules have been defined further with a 28-second possession time for men and women, plus an 18-second re-possession time.
“We’ll see after the World Championships how this turns out as no teams have had the chance to play these in competition.”
World Aquatics Technical Water Polo Committee Chair Tamas Molnar confirmed the rule change this week, stating that the 25m pool and 28-18-second combination would be played by both genders.
Hoad champions the recent Australian league finals in which the men’s gold-medal final finished 22-20 with USA import Hannes Daube scoring 12 goals, only two of which were penalty goals. Aussie Shark Luke Pavillard scored 10 goals in a finals encounter, four of which were penalty goals.
“I thought it was an improvement. Closer to basketball. The elimination of referees’ whistles is very difficult to achieve. I have listened to Bruce Wigo’s arguments and I think they have traction,” Hoad said.
I was coached by an eight-time Olympian.
A lesson he taught me will stick with me for life.
In 2011, I was 3 years into my junior water polo career.
I’d been playing for a club called the Dolphins when the coach of a competitor club and 8-time Australian Olympian, Tom Hoad,… pic.twitter.com/pRZGXuIUxm
Editor’s Note:Tom Hoad has been inducted to the Western Australia Sporting Hall of Champions (1996), Water Polo Australia Hall of Fame (2009), the International Swimming Hall of Fame (2011), and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame (2021).
Solanco freshman earns silver medal at New Balance Outdoor Track & Field Nationals | Local Sports
Lauren Eshleman is among the best in the nation. The Solanco jumper earned a silver medal in the girls freshman triple jump on Saturday’s third day of the New Balance Nationals Outdoors at Penn’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia, recording a mark of 11.37 meters on her second jump. Eshleman placed 13th overall and first among […]
The Solanco jumper earned a silver medal in the girls freshman triple jump on Saturday’s third day of the New Balance Nationals Outdoors at Penn’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia, recording a mark of 11.37 meters on her second jump.
Eshleman placed 13th overall and first among freshmen in Class 3A at the District Three meet last month. Elizabethtown’s Grace Mortha also participated in the event Saturday, placing 24th with a mark of 10.52 on her first try.
Manheim Township’s Cole Stevens finished eighth in the boys steeplechase in 6:01.99.
A pair of Hempfield throwers placed in the middle school girls shot put, with Evelyn Gates claiming 17th (10.49 meters) and Naomi Gates taking 23rd (9.93). Northern Lebanon’s Emily Weimer also finished 35th (8.98).
Conestoga Valley’s Brusvazion Baisch took 17th place in the freshman boys javelin, recording a mark of 41.96.
E-town’s Kate Ferris led a slew of locals in the middle school girls 800-meter run, placing 25th in 2:18.98. Teammate Sophia Short was close behind at 2:23.85, placing 58th. A pair of Hempfield runners, Giuliana Houseman (2:34.00, 124th) and Sienna Houseman (2:40.06, 131st), also ran in the event.
Cedar Crest’s Mikayla Fripps placed 34th in the freshman girls shot put with a mark of 9.41 on her third and final throw.
Penn Manor’s Ethan Kloppmann earned a tie for 37th place in the high school boys high jump, earning a mark of 1.97 meters.
Ethan Kloppmann’s first attempt at the high jump was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It…
Nick Keller of Ephrata took 43rd in the high school boys 400, finishing in 48.08 seconds. Keller placed fourth at the PIAA Class 3A meet last month in the event. Warwick’s Cooper Hollinger also placed in a high school track event, taking 53rd in the mile (4:16.16).
SHIPPENSBURG — Adam Kingston just wanted to be there for the kick.
McCaskey’s Alondra Grover placed 50th in the freshman girls 200 (25.80) while Cocalico’s Lia Augustine was less than a second behind at 26.34, taking 80th.
Two local squads competed in the 400 relay: McCaskey’s team of Davionne Stennett, Emery Plaza, Edwin Santana and Haneef Porter placed 54th on the boys side with a time of 42.71, while Annville-Cleona’s Miracle Hershey, Jada Morales, Sophia Caporaletti and Kendall Cooper took 60th on the girls side with a mark of 49.68.
Manheim Township’s Cole Stevens, and many of his fellow competitors, placed their hands on t…
Also, Manheim Central’s Kylie Mattice placed 91st in the girls 100 hurdles (15.29) and Lancaster Catholic’s Andrew Moore took 102nd in the freshman boys’ 400 (53.51).
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Chase Burns to make MLB debut for Cincinnati Reds Tuesday
Jun 22, 2025, 01:32 AM ET Open Extended Reactions Chase Burns, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 MLB draft who has excelled at three levels of the minor leagues this season, will be promoted next week so that he can make his major league debut for the Cincinnati Reds. Burns, a right-handed starter who […]
Chase Burns, the No. 2 pick in the 2024 MLB draft who has excelled at three levels of the minor leagues this season, will be promoted next week so that he can make his major league debut for the Cincinnati Reds.
Burns, a right-handed starter who is the No. 12 prospect in ESPN’s Top 50, will take the mound Tuesday at home against the New York Yankees.
Burns, 22, relies on an upper-90s fastball, and his 86 to 90 mph slider is possibly the best breaking ball in the minor leagues. He has made 13 starts in his professional career, the last of which came with Triple-A Louisville.
The Reds have had an up-and-down season, but at 39-38, they are still in the hunt for a National League wild-card berth, and Burns will bring added intrigue to the star-laden series against New York. Cincinnati has lost three in a row heading into Sunday’s series finale with the St. Louis Cardinals before it opens a homestand with the Yankees Monday night.
Burns is 7-3 with a 1.77 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 66 minor-league innings. Prior to his 2024 selection, he pitched in the SEC for Tennessee Volunteers and the ACC for Wake Forest.
“We’re trying to give ourselves every chance to win and be in this, and right now, we feel like Chase gives us the best chance, and it’s time to go,” Reds general manager Brad Meador told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
While the Reds have been inconsistent offensively this season, their pitching has been solid. Through Friday’s loss, the Reds were 16th overall in team ERA at 3.90 and 10th with a 1.23 WHIP. But they placed left-hander Wade Miley on the injured list Friday and had to author a bullpen game Saturday.
“Trying to figure out when the time is right is always the toughest part. You never know for sure when a guy’s ready,” Meador said. “But he’s obviously pitched as well as you could possibly hope in the first year of professional baseball, and he seems to be getting stronger. Even when a guy’s ready, you never know, but he’s passed every test. I don’t think he’s going to be overwhelmed by the situation, for sure.”
Pitching for Double-A Chattanooga this season, Burns went 6-1 with a 1.29 ERA in eight starts before landing in Louisville. On Tuesday at Great American Ball Park, he is likely to oppose New York’s Carlos Rodon, who is 9-5 this season with a 3.10 ERA.
LEVELED UP: Recent success takes McAuley track and field up to Class 2 | Local Sports
McAuley Catholic High School’s boys track and field team has leveled up. The Warriors have used their growth over recent years in running and throwing events to breed success at the state level. ×
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Why the SEC, Big Ten impasse over CFP format for 2026 matters to everyone
The offseason is definitely not the slow season as yet another week delivered news impacting both the Pac-12 legacy schools and other universities across the region. Here are four developments you might have missed. 1. CFP negotiations stall Nitty gritty: The Big Ten and SEC control the model for the College Football Playoff starting in […]
The offseason is definitely not the slow season as yet another week delivered news impacting both the Pac-12 legacy schools and other universities across the region.
Here are four developments you might have missed.
1. CFP negotiations stall
Nitty gritty: The Big Ten and SEC control the model for the College Football Playoff starting in the 2026 season and have not found common ground. The former wants a 16-team field based on automatic bids for the power conferences (the so-called 4-4-2-2-1 model) while the latter favored the 5+11 format that’s heavy on at-large bids.
During a meeting this week in Asheville, N.C., commissioners Tony Petitti of the Big Ten and Greg Sankey of the SEC decided a restart is in order.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a leading contender right now,” CFP executive director Rich Clark told reporters, “but they’re taking a fresh look at it.”
Why it matters: The CFP impacts everything in college football, and the model for 2026 has been the hottest topic in the sport for months. The impasse at the top of the governance structure creates the possibility, however remote, that the event won’t expand (to 14 or 16 teams) and, instead, will remain at 12. (That’s our preference, by the way.)
The commissioners are facing a Dec. 1 deadline to notify ESPN of any adjustments for 2026, when a new contract cycle begins. That might seem like plenty of time, but Petitti and Sankey, along with Jim Phillips of the ACC and Brett Yormark of the Big 12, have been discussing possible alterations for months and gotten nowhere.
Whatever format the Big Ten and SEC ultimately select will have sweeping implications for every major college conference, from the Big 12 and ACC to the Pac-12 and Sun Belt.
A model based on automatic qualifiers, for example, would free up the SEC and Big Ten to create a regular-season crossover series. That, in turn, would limit their opportunities to schedule non-conference matchups with teams in other leagues, particularly the ACC and Big 12.
There are other ramifications — too many to detail here, in fact.
Just know that distrust of the selection committee is rampant and common ground will continue to be elusive for the Big Ten and SEC. And they have the only votes that matter.
2. Commissioners mull new start date for football
Nitty gritty: Commissioners from the Football Bowl Subdivision conferences discussed moving the official start of the season up one week, to what is commonly referred to as Week 0: the Saturday before Labor Day weekend.
(If the change had been in place for the 2025 season, for example, everyone would start play Aug. 23. Instead, the season begins in full force Aug. 30.)
Why it matters: The Week 0 discussion has received little attention over the years but is one of the most important issues in the sport. In fact, it’s the key to unlocking the jammed postseason calendar.
College Football Playoff expansion to 12 teams created substantial overlap with the final weeks of the NFL season and playoffs. Last year, for instance, two CFP opening-round games (on Dec. 21) were up against a mammoth NFL doubleheader (Chiefs-Texans and Steelers-Ravens).
That’s a fight college football cannot win and should avoid at all costs.
(Another issue: Playing the semifinals on a random Thursday and Friday to get out from under the NFL’s wild card weekend.)
Starting the season earlier would reduce the frequency of CFP conflicts with the NFL’s stretch run. It would create an earlier date for the national championship. (The title game for the 2026 season is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2027.) And it would allow more mid-December flexibility for additional opening-round games if the CFP expands to 14 or 16 teams.
The move to Week 0 needs to happen for the betterment of the postseason — August is the key to December — which means the change will take years to implement, if it happens at all.
3. Washington State downsizes track and field
Nitty gritty: The Cougars announced Monday a competitive shift “to a distance-focused approach,” meaning they will no longer sponsor field events and will reduce the “number of sprint and hurdle opportunities.”
Why it matters: The canary is chirping, except it’s not in a coal mine — it’s trapped in a financial vise brought about by the revenue-sharing era in college sports.
With a maximum of $20.5 million being shared with athletes, schools must make hard choices about sponsoring the dozens of Olympic sports programs that lose money. (Only football and men’s basketball generate a profit.)
Washington State isn’t the first Division I school to announce a reduction in sponsored sports — Utah is cutting beach volleyball; UTEP has eliminated women’s tennis — and assuredly won’t be the last.
In other instances, Olympic sports could have funding reduced to the point they essentially become club teams.
Utah Royals 1st NWSL team to 10 losses this season after falling 4-1 to Seattle
SANDY — Based on the postgame mood, you wouldn’t have guessed the Utah Royals had just lost their 10th game of the season. The NWSL’s last-place squad reached the midpoint of its season with a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Reign in its 13th game of the year Saturday at America First Field. The home […]
SANDY — Based on the postgame mood, you wouldn’t have guessed the Utah Royals had just lost their 10th game of the season.
The NWSL’s last-place squad reached the midpoint of its season with a 4-1 loss to the Seattle Reign in its 13th game of the year Saturday at America First Field.
The home team was outmatched from wire-to-wire against the top-five team from Washington, giving up goals in the sixth, 16th, 66th and 91st minutes.
For a brief moment near the end of the first half, it looked like a comeback could be underway when Bianca St-Georges scored her third goal of the season for Utah, but it wasn’t to be.
The goal, which moved St-Georges into a tie with Brecken Mozingo for the team lead in goals, was the only one in the cards for the Royals on Saturday, despite leading the visiting team 14-10 in total shots.
The Royals enter the midseason break on an eight-game winless streak and a four-game losing streak, with the next league fixture not until Aug. 3. But still, a sense of optimism and belief remained with players and coach during press conference comments.
Perhaps it’s because the break gives the team time to recover from a brutal start to the season that featured two season-ending injuries and take another step in building “from the bottom out,” as head coach Jimmy Coenraets described it.
“Make sure you kind of just detach from the game and you get some time by yourself,” Coenraets said of his advice to players heading into the break. “I just want everyone to come back in the best possible headspace.”
The real reason for the optimism, however, is likely because Utah is approaching this season as one piece of a much larger puzzle. Coenraets said that since the Miller family took over team ownership in April, he has felt supported in building a foundation for what he called “a sustainable future.”
“Ever since the change, there was one clear message, and that’s, ‘Let’s build a foundation, and let’s build upon the foundation that we are building the next six months,'” Coenraets said. “We want to be competitive as much as we can, but we also want to make sure that by being competitive, we’re actually building for the future and not giving up the future to just get results.”
Utah will play a pair of friendlies against the San Diego Wave to break up the month-long break and several Royals will continue playing games with their respective national teams, including Ally Sentnor and Mandy McGlynn with the USWNT and Janni Thomsen joining Denmark for the UEFA Women’s Euro tournament.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Minjee Lee's KPMG Women's PGA Championship Round 3 was 'remarkable'
June 21, 2025 08:02 PM Watch the best moments from the third round of the PGA Tour Champions’ third major, the Kaulig Companies Championship, at Firestone South. 0
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