THE 2017-18 Men’s Premier League season got underway on Saturday following a revamp from Water Polo WA and the new conference system produced Round 1 victories for the Melville Sharks, South Fremantle Bloods, UWA City Beach Flotsam and Triton.

The Premier League season will now run for 16 rounds until the finals in March with the men’s competition made up of eight teams split between two conferences.

The action got underway with Round 1 on Saturday with the Fremantle Conference matches taking place at Bicton Pool. That saw the Melville Sharks defeat Dolphins 11-8 and the South Fremantle Bloods defeated the Port Colts 9-3.

The UWA Conferences matches took place at HBF Stadium with Flotsam defeating City Beach 10-2 and Triton beating Rangers 10-9.

Starting the Fremantle Conference matches at Bicton Pool, the Melville Sharks got things underway on Saturday against Dolphins.

The Sharks scored the opening two goals of the game in the first four minutes through the returning Joel Swift and Jake Leavy before Dolphins got one back before quarter-time from the hand of Harry Paterson.

Dolphins drew level to open the second quarter when Paterson added a second goal before Melville regained the lead with a goal from Swift. Then after Dolphins responded immediately courtesy of Tibor Seress, the Sharks scored the last two goals of the half from James Fannon to lead 5-3.

It then became 6-3 early in the third quarter but again Dolphins just wouldn’t go away and hit back with the next two goals from Sam Dobney and Peter Gaunt.

Melville still led 7-5 by three quarter-time with another goal to Swift and that became 8-5 early in the fourth with a goal to Leavy. Dolphins did manage another three fourth quarter goals but Melville proved too strong to end up winning 11-8.

Joel Swift on return from a shoulder injury starred for Melville with the Rio Olympian scoring five goals while James Fannon and Jake Leavy scored three times apiece. Tibor Seress scored three goals for Dolphins and Harry Paterson two.

Swift was awarded the three votes for the game, Seress the two and Fannon the one.

It was then time for two Melville-linked clubs, the Port Colts and South Fremantle Bloods to go up against one another.

Port Colts did score first thanks to Luca Altieri before the Bloods responded with the next two in the first quarter from Petar Tomasevic and Michael Brown.

South Fremantle then scored the only four goals of the second term thanks to Will McKay, McKay again, Nick O’Halloran and Adam Yeates to lead 6-1 at half-time.

Port Colts did manage the first goal of the second half when Davis Verboon scored in general play. South Fremantle answered with two more in the third period from O’Halloran and Yeates before a goal apiece in the last quarter as the Bloods won 9-3.

Adam Yeates, Will McKay and Nick O’Halloran scored two goals each for South Fremantle.

South Fremantle’s Petar Tomasevic was presented with the three votes, Luca Altieri from Port Colts the two and Bloods ‘keeper Ed Slade the one.

The UWA Conference action got underway on Saturday at HBF Stadium with Flotsam taking on UWA City Beach in a battle of two clubs tied to UWA.

It’s a strong group representing Flotsam in this year’s Premier League coached by Australian, West Australian and UWA Torpedoes goalkeeping legend Luke Quinlivan with the team featuring Torpedoes players such as Alex Bogunovich, Nick Hughes, Andrew Ford.

Flotsam made a fast start up against the Damian Kelly-coached City Beach and they scored three first quarter goals courtesy of Andrew Ford, Drew Lilleyman and Alex Bogunovich.

Flotsam then took a 4-0 lead into half-time with a late second quarter goal with the extra man from Bogunovich.

It then became 5-0 to start the second half with another Flotsam goal courtesy of Lilleyman before City Beach got on the board with two goals inside just over a minute from Ollie Sheldrick and Sam Rowbottam.

But that would be the end of the comeback with Flotsam scoring four goals in the last three and-a-half minutes of the third quarter to Henry Brown, Brown again, Tarrin Williams and Tom Sangster.

Flotsam then scored the only goal of the fourth period through Ford to secure the 10-2 victory.

Drew Lilleyman, Andrew Ford, Alex Bogunovich and Henry Brown all scored two goals each for Flotsam.

Bogunovich was given the three votes after the match, Ford the two and then Sam Rowbottam the one from City Beach.

The round then concluded with the UWA Rangers playing Triton also at HBF Stadium.

With the Rangers captained by Torpedoes star Lach Pethick and his teammates including Tim Putt, Lachlan Vos, Tom Rigoll and Tom Powell it’s a strong line-up, but Triton is also full of talent and experience including Florian Naroska, Brett McGhie, Hamish St George, Matt Oberman and Jack Perry.

It set the stage for a terrific contest and it didn’t disappoint with the UWA team scoring first with the only first quarter goal from Tim Putt.

Triton drew level with the first goal of the second quarter through Brett McGhie before they took the lead through Jayden Horne.

The Rangers drew level again at 2-2 in the third quarter when Lachlan Vos scored an extra man goal but Triton answered Florian Naroska to go up 3-2. The two teams continued to trade goals right up until three quarter-time where the scores were level at 6-6.

After another goal each to start the final period, Triton took a 9-7 lead with quick goals to Naroska and Jack Perry. But Rangers set the stage for a fascinating finish with the next two goals both from Tom Rigoll.

With scores tied at 9-9, the winner came for Triton courtesy of Max Contessi with 33 seconds remaining to secure the 10-9 victory.

Jayden Horne scored three goals for Triton, Florian Naroska two and Brett McGhie two. Tom Rigoll finished with three goals for the Rangers and Tom Powell two.

McGhie claimed the three votes from Triton, Powell the two from Rangers and Rigoll also from UWA the one.

Round 2 of the Men’s Premier League this Saturday will see the Fremantle Conference matches take place at Bicton Pool with Dolphins playing Port Colts at 3.30pm and South Fremantle Bloods battling Melville Sharks at 4.45pm.

The UWA Conference matches will again be at HBF Stadium with Triton playing City Beach at 2.30pm before Flotsam takes on Rangers at 4pm.

PREMIER LEAGUE 2017-18 MEN’S COMPETITION RESULTS

ROUND 1 – Saturday October 14
Fremantle Conference 
Melville Sharks 11 defeated Dolphins 8
Port Colts 3 lost to South Fremantle Bloods 9

UWA Conference
City Beach 2 lost to Flotsam 10
Rangers 9 lost to Triton 10