San Giljan Zara coach Joe Attard is hopeful that he can lead his enthusiastic side to a place within the top four.

Although this year there’s the Football World Cup going on, San Giljan coach, Joe ‘Ors’ Attard still believes that Maltese sports enthusiasts will always look out for the waterpolo results.

“Many might argue with such a statement because there are more football supporters than waterpolo fans but local waterpolo will always get that special attention it deserves because it is a sport in which we always bagged decent scores, especially when the national team is playing,” said Attard.

Joe has been involved in waterpolo for 24 years. Last year, his team won the national championship 2005 in Division 2 and he looks forward for this year’s Division 1 games in the Wilkinson Sword Waterpolo national championship.

Asked what kind of predictions he has, he said that Sliema, Neptunes and Sirens have equal chances of winning the championship. He aims to place within the first four teams and get good results. “A major factor to this will be the foreign players’ integration in their team.”

San Giljan will be having a foreign player from the preliminary round. He’s from Serbia and Montenegro and currently plays with Partizan Belgrade. He is Marko Cuk and is an all-rounder,” commented Joe.

Attard has coached Barracudas between 1982 and 1983, Valletta between 1984 and 1989, Neptunes between 1990 and 1996, M’scala between 1997 and 1999, Sirens between 2001 and 2004 and San Giljan since last year. Joe is the only coach for the San Giljan team.

Asked about incoming and outgoing players, Joe said that freshmen Toni Galea and Scerri de Caro will be playing as a defender and all-rounder respectively. “Both have integrated very well in the team. On the other hand, Gary Farrugia has retired.”

When speaking about the captain of the team, Joe said that Silvio Borg is a responsible person and tries to sort out any problems arising within the team. “Together with other experienced players, he gives suggestions regarding the technical aspects of the team.”

As a final comment on waterpolo coaching, Joe said that you need good programming to keep season-long training from becoming boring. “It’s like when you go for a meal; you’ll get bored if you always eat the same meal at the same restaurant. I try to make training more fun for the players.

Attard is not only interested in waterpolo. He follows all kind of sports with football on top of the list. Joe also indulges in water-colour painting in his spare time.

He is married to Jane and they have three girls: Rachel, Dorianne and Charlene and two grandsons Nicholas and Julian.