The De Cesare Era (Part 1)

The Committee wanted to pull the team from the lows of the previous season and for 1986, decided straightaway to invest in a good coach who could jerk the players and instill the confidence which our upcoming youngsters badly needed. Peter De Cesare had enough charisma and experience in his repertoire to attract certain players like Andrew Borg and Simon Bianco who were virtually unknown in the waterpolo scene but eventually proved to be not only the pillars of the new team but also were being eyed by the bigger clubs. Peter was given the dual responsibility of playing as well as coaching; of course this was not easy however he succeeded in this new role, showing the rest of the team the tricks of the game. Whenever he was in the water, one could feel his presence, his sense of leadership and ‘grinta’ which was evidently lacking in previous editions of the Exiles teams. The plan was to build a team which will be capable to win promotion within three years. Although the team performed like clockwork, the initial results obtained were very not encouraging: the double win on newcomers Otters from Gozo and the draws against Barracudas were no consolation whilst the close shave defeats against San Giljan and Marsascala proved that the team was once again on the competitive edge. In the knock-out competition Exiles avenged their defeats in the league at the hands of Marsascala when we beat them 12-11 after extra time and penalties. In the final however, San Giljan proved to be a hard nut and they won 5-2.

In 1987 the team reaped its first success under the guidance of Peter De Cesare when in a very balanced and competitive environment, Exiles just edged Sirens to lift the Ferrarelle Trophy. In fact three teams were on the starting line for the final contention, San Giljan, Sirens (coached by Dirk Dowling) and Exiles. I remember that for the return match against Sirens, Peter was suspended for one match after in a friendly tournament  (guess where and organized by which club??), he slammed the ball towards the referee. We just lost the match by an odd goal in seven; it was the only defeat of the league campaign with another point lost in a draw against Barracudas in the first round when Exiles were cruising home to a victory before seeing their comfortable lead fizzle out. Besides the two grueling encounters against Sirens in whose side paraded Jonathan Valletta and John ‘Flashy’ Farrugia, there was another memorable match against San Giljan in the first round when we won 6-4 with the opponents’ goals coming from penalties besides another one which they missed. The Exiles team made it also to the final of the Knock-Out but failed to make the double after losing (3-4) to Sirens.

Besides Simon, Andrew, Peter De Cesare made use of Peter Apap, the Padovani twins Richard and Robert, Denis Attard-Bondi, Robert Ellul, Martin Gauci, Stephen Mamo, Raphael Micallef-Trigona, Stephen Paris, David Schembri-Wismayer, Antoine Sciberras who formed part of the team. Peter had also John Salomone Reynaud as his assistant on the bench and who monitored the team whilst player-coach De Cesare was in the water.  

In the next article, Exiles have another go at top division waterpolo when in 1988 they took part in the first division.