A Setback

Whenever a club wins an honour, it is stimulating in the sense that the Committee would want to consolidate on that success to strengthen the team for the following campaign. This is what the Club had wished for 1985; however things went the opposite way. Foreign players were banned from playing with the local teams after a two-year spell in which the crowds attending the matches seem to have been on the increase. Exiles had taken the opportunity of engaging Werner Schonberger as the first team coach. Werner was at the helm of a young B’Bugia team and made his impact in the local scene with credible results which lifted the team from the South to competitive levels.

New faces had joined Exiles; Robert Ellul, Robin Zammit and Paul ‘Gilly' Darmanin were added to another fresh set of young established players which included  Andrew Mallia, Karl Magri, Raphael Micallef Trigona, Stephen Paris and  brothers Michael and John Paris. Together with relative veterans Adrian Farrugia Martin Gauci and James Scerri this squad had enough depth and a blend of experience and youth to be considered as containing all the ingredients for a prospective of doing well under the stewardship of Dutchman Schonberger.

Rumours that had been circling concerning John Paris about his possible transfer to neighbours Neptunes the following season had upset the Club’s plans. Schonberger was not made aware of the news and in the first round of (a revised) second division league, Exiles had a flying start winning the first two encounters comfortably before coming to a cropper against San Giljan (8-11) and Marsascala (5-7) in the next two matches to jeopardize the chances of fighting for the title. It was then decided to part with John Paris by instructing the coach not to make use of him for the rest of the season.

For what was left of a disappointing season, the team picked up only one point from the subsequent five matches to end on a low note indeed. There was some form of consolation however as John Paris (19 years) won his ‘first cap’ when he was selected to play for the Maltese National Waterpolo team in competition held in Bulgaria. 

In the next Article(s), we will recall when Peter De Cesare takes over the team as player coach.