Kfc Breakers
The Polo Bears and North Brisbane Water Polo Club boast a very proud and illustrious history. Blake Dimitrijevic, an A-grade player and a long standing member (whose brother Damon and sister Kara play for the Breakers National League Team), tells us a bit more about playing with the Queensland Breakers.
How far can you go in water polo?
Water Polo is a major international sport that is played at the Highest level at the Olympic Games. European nations such as Hungary, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Russia, Greece and Croatia regularly battle each other in the pool watched on by thousands of people. Australia is also regarded as a top 10 nation and its woman side won the Gold Medal at the Sydney Olympics.
Like any sport the ultimate is to play for your country. Australia picks it best players at the end of each National Water Polo League Season to tour Europe to play the best nations in the world.The Australian National Water Polo League is made up of clubs all around the country and played out on weekends on a home and away basis from late January to Easter.
Alliance with North Brisbane
The KFC QLD Breakers is Qld largest national league water polo club. It is an alliance of three Brisbane based clubs: River City, Warriors and our club North Brisbane.The best players from these three Brisbane based clubs are brought together and form the Breakers men's and women's teams.
The KFC QLD Breakers offer a pathway to maximising your water polo potential. Talented players are identified early in club teams (at under 14, 15 and 16 level) and asked to join the juniors breakers squads. Their players will train and play with juniors from the other two breakers aligned clubs developing their skills, and improving their strength and fitness levels. Often junior games will be played before the national league games at the valley pool.
KFC QLD Breakers regularly send their junior teams away interstate to tournaments. These teams will compete in national U16 & U18 Championship giving players experience in tournament situations before entering the senior teams. Many North Brisbane players have come up through this system before going onto play with the Breakers. Current players include Damon & Kara Dimitrijevic, Simon & Glen Griffith, Billy Miller, Luisa Hawkins, Bronwyn Knox, Amy Hetzel and Cara Tyler.
Two of our members competed in the Gold Medal winning team at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. They were Gail Miller and Naomi Castle. Naomi continued on as the Australian Captain to compete at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Club Member Pietro Figlioli also competed at the Athens Olympics in the Men's Team. Ben Lees was Australian team coach.
Pietro Frigoli joined North Brisbane as a junior in the late 1990s. He was quickly identified as a talented player and was brought up through the Breakers system, where he went on to become an Australian Representative at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Pietro now plays professionally in Italy and before that in Spain. He is a true example on how far you can go in water polo and how well the KFC QLD Breakers / North Brisbane Water Polo Club junior development system works
