Mathoura connection to national polo team

By Eileen Day

Jul 8, 2023

Charlie Murphy, the son of former Mathoura locals Mick and Kylie Murphy, has been selected in an Australian water polo team.

Mathoura will have a connection to the Australian/New Zealand Water Polo Test Series, to be held at Hawkes Bay, New Zealand next week.

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The connection comes through 15 year-old Charlie Murphy, son of well known former locals Mick and Kylie Murphy, now of Albury.

Charlie first got into the sport at the age of 10 playing in under-14s in the Albury Ovens & Murray Competition and he has never looked back.

Late last year, Charlie was drafted by a Melbourne water polo club - the Melbourne Collegians’ under-16 team, specifically to play for them at the Australian Youth Tournament in Perth in January this year.

Whilst the team missed out on a finals berth, Charlie had an outstanding tournament scoring 35 goals.

It made him the highest goal scorer for the tournament across all age groups.

Following the WA event, Water Polo Australia set about putting together a training squad for an upcoming series in New Zealand.

Based on Charlie’s outstanding tournament in Perth, he was selected in the training squad which went into a training camp over Easter at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

Due to Charlie’s overall training camp and tournament performances, he gained selection in the Australian under-16 team for the NZ tour.

Charlie has worked extremely hard to achieve his goal of playing for Australia with 5am swim sessions and regular trips to Melbourne and Sydney for games forming a major part of his weekly program.

I’m sure all will agree the effort will be worthwhile when Charlie and his mum and dad set foot on Kiwi soil for the biggest games of Charlie’s career to date.

Good luck to Charlie and I’m sure all your Mathoura relatives and friends will be wishing you well in this big event.

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Special birthday wishes this week go to a lovely local lady.

She is Elspheth Hughes who celebrated her 90th birthday with friends at Mathoura Bowling Club.

Best wishes Elspheth I hope you have many more.

•••

Well done to Mathoura Football Club with wins by the senior and reserve teams in their last round.

It is also good to read the player reports on their performances so if you want a good laugh keep your eyes out for them.

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When there is frost on the ground and the wind is whistling around your ears – that’s when you need to rug up for school.

And rug up is what students at Mathoura Public School did last week when they had a Pyjama Day.

I don’t know how many pairs of pyjamas and blankets they were wrapped up in but they certainly looked pretty snug.