2002 -The Third Double

The league format remained the same. All participating teams play each other in a preliminary round to determine the top four teams that qualify for the championship pool. It is always pays to meet the four more-quoted teams at the start of a campaign; once they are out of the way, the experimenting ceases. The coach takes the opportunity in those few matches to evaluate the prospects of drafting promising youngsters and moulds what he considers to be the core of players forming the team.

The Indicators

The big teams also use the matches versus the minnows to give their youngsters a taste of competitive playing without any risk of loss of points. To the connoisseurs of this fascinating game, the preliminary round more or less indicates where the second division league goes. A good gauge is normally the results obtained by the hot contenders of the lower league with the Big Four. In 2002, it was not an exception, as the scores clearly indicated that the Exiles squad had enough depth in all the departments to edge their closest opponents. Another indicator is the participation in the Winter league. This means an earlier preparation and a head start over those teams that give the winter league a miss. In that season, Exiles took part with six other clubs including San Giljan and Ta’ Xbiex. A credible result (6-9) against Marsascala and two good wins over the other two Division Two teams augured well for the summer season.

The First Hurdles

Meeting the top four teams in the first four matches proved to be tonic for the boys lead by coach Dirk Dowling. There was never any doubt as to which team had to bag the points; the results confirmed the verdict. The matches with Sliema (5-13) Sirens (2-9) Neptunes (8-13) and Marsascala (5-9) gave the Exiles team the required determination and confidence for the rest of the competition as the league unfolded.

The Real Crunch

The real test started when we met San Giljan – a clash which ended in a draw of six goals apiece. In this crucial match, Exiles took an early lead of four goals before the Saints reduced the gap to two by the end of the second session. Exiles suffered ten exclusions including three major fouls each for Timmy Sullivan and Kayne Lanzon. This meant that Coach Dirk Dowling had to reshuffle the team and played practically the third and fourth session without these key players. In the third session the three-goal lead was restored with a goal from David Pace Lupi. In the final session, San Giljan made a an extra effort to reduce the gap. Exiles held tight and were a whisker away from gaining the two points at stake but with ten seconds to go, Jason Vella was expelled for a major foul for San Giljan to snatch the equalizer four seconds to the bell.

In their next set of matches of the Preliminary Round, San Giljan lost precious points and faltered when losing against Marsaxlokk 2-4 and leveling 9-9 against Ta’ Xbiex. This gave Exiles a comfortable lead of three points by the end of the Round over what we considered to be the main challengers.

Four straight wins that followed over Valletta (14-1) Marsaxlokk (5-4) (a close shave indeed), Ta’ Xbiex (8-5) and Otters (11-1) were a prelude to the second round clash with San Giljan that needed to win at all costs against Exiles to hope to return to the reckoning. The tussle ended once again in a close encounter. It was a repeat of the first round fixture with Exiles dominating the first three sessions building a lead of 5-2 before another comeback by the St Julians side saw the latter drawing level 5-5 with 12 seconds from the final whistle. Dirk called the second time out available and the plan was to literally hide the ball in those interminable seconds.

Another hurdle

Following this clash Exiles faced a strong Marsaxlokk side that could prove to be the last hurdle before attempting to make a claim for the championship. The match was closely fought with the score alternating. With two and a half minutes to go, Exiles finally took a two-goal lead; it seemed that the match was titling in our favour. Our opponents soon reduced the score 7-8. Exiles fumbled a man-up situation and paid dearly for it. With twenty-two seconds left and with the score hanging 8-7 in our favour, it was Stevie Grech’s turn to leave the pitch for 20 seconds and Marsaxlokk drew level 8-8 as seven seconds remained for the final whistle. Once again, Dirk called a time-out and we managed to keep possession.

It was evident that the stiffest hurdle had been surmounted; Dirk knew it and so did the team. He wanted to make sure that the team’s concentration would focus primarily on the remaining three matches against opponents that were below the strength of our closest contenders. In fact the encounter with Ta Xbiex lasted two sessions before Exiles increased an unassailable lead of six goals to win 12-6. The goal was now approaching as neither Otters (9-4) nor Valletta (15-5) could arrest Exiles’ triumphal march.

The Double is achieved

In the knock-out competition, Exiles had an easy passage to the final after disposing of Otters 13-6 to meet San Giljan for the fourth time in season 2002. The match was another hard-fought affair. Exiles were practically in the driving seat throughout the four sessions but the team just could not shake off their opponents to take the deserved lead as the shooting was erratic. It was only in the final few minutes of the last quarter that Exiles succeeded to build a two-goal advantage which they managed to hang on to till the end. A brace by Silvio Borg and one goal a piece by Jason Vella, Kayne Lanzon, Stevie Grech and Timmy Sullivan brought the team’s final tally of six against the four goals scored by San Giljan.

The squad was made up of skipper Jason Vella, Silvio Borg,the team’s top scorer, Kayne Lanzon, David Pace Lupi, Timmy Sullivan, Anthony Cachia, Stephen Balzan, Stevie Grech, Michael Grima, Dino Camilleri, Antoine Sciberras, Adrian Bruno and Keith Camilleri.

In the next article, Exiles obtain the services of waterpolo stalwart Marco Manara as new coach and another honour is added.