Geraldton’s finest head to Karratha to defend water polo titles at Country Week

Geraldton’s finest water polo players are in Karratha and hoping to defend their country titles against the best the State’s regions have to offer.

Men’s Country Week coach Russell McKinnon said on Thursday he and the competitors were en route to Karratha and understood the tournament would be going ahead.

“I’ve got both trophies in the car,” McKinnon said. “The aim is to hold on to them both.

“The women’s side are thinking it will be tough for them to threepeat, and we hope we can do the double.

“It all depends on the opposition, you never know how good they are.”

He said with changes to squads it was hard to predict how tough the other teams would be.

“There might be restrictions, and some of our spectators haven’t come up, knowing they can’t get in,” McKinnon said.

“We’ll find out what sort of restrictions we’ve got.”

He said with three matches in a day in Karratha heat, the coaches would need to manage players carefully with the heat and the possibility of injuries.

Emma Smith will lead the women’s side and Zacc Cross will be the men’s captain.

In squad news, men’s player Ben Gibson has been replaced by Daniel Prout after a hand injury.

Both sides won in Port Hedland in 2021.