Tomaz Lasic
During his professional club and international representative water polo playing career of 20 years, Tomaz Lasic kept goals for three countries, twice won the LEN European Champions League with the famous Mladost club from Zagreb, Croatia, won numerous national titles in different countries and earned over 100 caps for Aussie Sharks mens national team. As a coach, he led the high performance WAIS Women’s Programme producing several Olympians, coached State and National League teams, worked as a specialist goalkeeper coach with various Australian Olympic teams and nurtured some of Australia’s best female and male goalkeepers.
With a Masters in Education degree and over 25 years of experience of teaching and research at secondary and tertiary level, Tomaz deeply understands the principles of development and learning and prides himself at seeing each athlete as a whole and a unique individual with a team. Tomaz is also a published author of a goalkeeping book “The Love of Goalkeeping; Many Sports, One Love‘, creator and manager of ‘Water Polo Goalies‘ on Facebook, the world’s largest social media community of goalkeepers, and the principal coach at Goalie Power.
Andrei Kovalenko
Andrei Kovalenko is an accomplished former water polo athlete and coach with an impressive track record spanning over 40 years. He is the head coach of our partners Magura Water Polo.
Andrei has represented various countries at the Olympic Games and holds experience in high-performance sport across different cultural settings. Throughout his career, he has excelled in program development, talent identification, and team coaching, leading to the successful development of players at the highest international level.
Andrei’s has established and implemented a number of high-performance coaching programs, youth engagement initiatives, talent identification, and developed strong relationships with international clubs and federations.
He has brought up a number of players who have become household names in Australian water polo, including goalkeepers. His exceptional communication and leadership skills, multilingual abilities, and strong relationships with various stakeholders position him as a respected figure in the water polo community worldwide.
Danielle Woodhouse
Danielle won the inagurual Olympic gold medal in womens water polo in Sydney 2000 with Aussie Stingers, several national titles and represented Australia over 100 times.
As a highly qualified sports physiotherapist, Danielle has worked and toured extensively with Australian men and womens national water polo teams.
Danielle has coached club and state teams and on many occassions worked as the specialist goalkeeping coach and mentor to goalkeepers from juniors to Olympic levels.
Lilian Hedges
Lilian’s Aussie Stinger career has spanned from 2014 – 2023. She’s played 112 games for Australia including competing at a World Championship, two World Cups and numerous world league rounds. She played professionally in France and made French history qualifying for Champions League. She’s won an Australian national title and a gold medal at the 2015 Universiade in South Korea.
She’s completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in anatomy and human biology and is due to complete her bachelor of Physiotherapy at the end of 2024.
