Start of the National Championship for Women
This Saturday marks the beginning of the new, 25th Croatian Senior Women's Championship. The same 6 teams that competed for the title of the best women's club last season are on the starting list – Jadran, Mladost, Jug, Bura, Viktoria, and Mursa.
The title of champions is defended by the women from Split's Jadran, and their biggest competition will come from the "Žabice" of Mladost. In fact, these two clubs have been leading the way in our women's water polo for the past 5 seasons. Jadran and Mladost have always been the final pair in the Croatian Championship for the past 5 years, and the same was true in the Croatian Cup competition. The only exception was in the 2022/23 Cup, when Mladost and POŠK 1937 reached the final. Even then, there were quite a few players in the POŠK team who later moved to Jadran.
ŽAVK Mladost and Jadran have already won a trophy each this season. The Super Cup went to the women from Zagreb, while the Cup went to the women from Jadran. Now a somewhat different form of competition follows, as it is a classic league competition of longer duration. However, judging by the squads, Jadran and ŽAVK Mladost are once again the top favorites for a final showdown.
In the 1st round, Jadran will have the easiest task as they host Mursa. The team from Osijek failed to earn a single point last season. The women from Jadran will not be at full strength as Nina Eterović is recovering from pneumonia, and Jelena Butić has a ligament injury in her elbow and will likely not be available to coach Kunc for another 15 days. At the same time, the Argentine national team player Agustina Todoroff has not yet returned to Split from her home country.
Mladost will debut this season in Šibenik against Viktoria. The "Žabice" are at full strength, except that for the 1st round their coach Zoran Bajić will be absent as he is with the men's national team under 20 in Varaždin for training until Sunday. It is likely that Mia Šimunić will step in to coach the Mladost team for this occasion.
The third pair in the 1st round is Jug – Bura in Dubrovnik. The women from Dubrovnik pleasantly surprised in the Croatian Championship last season, deservedly securing third place when they defeated the Split team, Bura.
It is worth mentioning that on the following day, Sunday, January 12th, a match from the 2nd round of the national championship will be played, with Viktoria hosting Osijek's Mursa in Crnica in the morning hours.
