‘It’s easy to get mad’: Meet the water polo team with four sets of sisters

Siblings competing on the same sporting team – that’s nothing new. Think Cate and Bronte Campbell. Steve and Mark Waugh. Tom and Jake Trbojevic. The Selwood brothers.

But four sets of sisters in the same team?

Meet the UTS Balmain women’s water polo side, where eight players from four families have provided a delicate juggling act for coach Harry Sanderson.

“More often than not, it’s a sibling blue you’ve got to navigate,” Sanderson says with a laugh.

“As anyone knows, sisters bicker. So when it’s great, it’s great. When it’s not, it’s challenging.

“I do think it’s a bit of a hidden luxury for us.”

This week’s Australian Water Polo League finals series features six women’s and six men’s teams, none with a dynamic quite like Balmain’s.

The team sheet lists the Smith sisters (Indiana and Layla), the Waughs (Anabelle and Matilda), the O’Neills (Evelyn and Abbey) and the Dunns (Saskia and Lily), who combined make up more than the seven players a team has in the water at any one time.

It is a unique set-up at Balmain, a club founded in 1884. At one of Australia’s oldest sporting institutions, family ties run deep.

Evelyn O’Neill, at 16, is the youngest of the eight, and sister Abbey is three years her senior. Among the siblings, the average age gap is about two years – enough for the older siblings to direct traffic in the pool.

“I think it gives us a lot of direction, especially coming from the older sisters,” says 18-year-old Indiana Smith, who scored five goals in a thriller against Sydney University on Thursday, including the match-winner in a penalty shootout. “As the younger sister, I find it quite fun because if you ever get lost, you can turn to the older sister and get a bit more clarity.”

Layla Smith adds: “We can be really direct with each other, because we know it’s no hard feelings. If you stuff up, it’s easy to get mad at your sister. Of course, we bicker a little bit, but at the end of the day, we have each other’s back.”

The Smiths come from strong sporting stock. Their father, Balmain club president Damian, is a former Wallaby who played in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Their mother, Bronwyn (nee Mayer), won water polo Olympic gold with Australia at Sydney 2000 in a final remembered for Yvette Higgins’ late goal against the United States. She relishes the “great dynamic … a unique thing”.

“They love each other,” Bronwyn says. “When they fight, they protect each other ... and they read each other so well.”

After their match on Thursday, the sisters took part in an underwater photoshoot with Herald photographer Audrey Richardson.

“It was pretty fun,” says Indiana Smith. “I don’t think we’re the best models, but we did our best.”

Remarkably, another sibling pairing is expected at Balmain next year, with a player set to rejoin from the US college system. Sanderson believes he could soon field an almost entirely family-based line-up. He’d also love to see a set of sisters progress to represent Australia.

“In training, we sometimes get all the sisters in together,” he says. “It can turn into a bit of an all-in brawl, so we try not to do it too often.

“We understand each other deeply and we’re a big family.”