NORDEK'S HISTORY
The club formed as a merger between Norths and Deakin in 1977- hence the name Nordek. The amalgamation of administrative ability and player numbers provided the foundation of a strong club. For the first few seasons we trained at the Deakin pool now known as the Oasis. This pool was owned and managed by one of the club stalwarts Ron Watkins who also served as President.
The 1st season we fielded 3 senior men's team and two women's and a under 18 men's team. The 1st grade men's team contained Jim Hanharan (capt coach) Mark Turnbull, Chris lord, Bevan Liebke, Mick Spellacy, Laurie Jackson, Hugh Crawley. Karl Malemberg Russell Fischer Alan Rowe and Paul Larsen, (baby Hughie – a huge man who later found fame as the body of the master blaster in Mad Max 3) Other club stalwarts where included Brian Barry, Dick Downing, John Raut.
In the women's Rhonda Turnbull, Jane McCallum, Rosie Langdon (later Simpson) Leslie Frew, Penny Liebke , Jenni Jahnke & Meryl Smith were a great team taking out many ACT Premierships and Country Club Championships. They were joined later in the 70's-early 80's by Kate, Samantha and Rowena Cocking and Sue Saxby (later Sinclair), Margie Wiley, Christine O'Neill.
In those early years there were teams from Queanbeyan and Cooma, RMC, and Belconnen. But the strongest club was South Canberra with the Tye brothers (Martin and Andrew), Dee Croft, and Paddy Callahan and captain coach Martin Tye amongst others. Nordek and South Canberra had many torrid battles but South Canberra invariably won. Likewise in the Women's South Canberra with Brownwyn Bancroft and Eva leading the way had were the opponents in many memorable games for the Women.
Our Team through that period included Mark Turnbull, Andrew Wiley, John Lepagniol, Trevor Simpson, Tony Saxby , Russell Fischer, Alan Rowe, Bevan Liebke and Dee Croft. It was not until the mid 80's that Nordek regularly started to beat South Canberra . South Canberra as a club dropped to 2 nd grade only and then folded.
In the early 80's a junior skills session was set up which saw Antony Walsh join the club as a 13 year old as well as Owen Parker, the Costanzo bothers Luke and David. Rowan Woodburn a later Dragons Stalwart, also started his water polo in this group.
In 1985 Rene Bol came to Canberra and joined the Services club who built a strong club around him and became our main opponents over that period. Services subsequently changed their name to Tuggeranong.
Nordek was strengthened by the arrival in Canberra of Mark Nixon and the emergence of Antony Walsh as a class player.
In late 80's we saw the transfer from Belconnen of Trent Birkett and with AIS player and eventual Australian captain Daniel Marden helped Nordek take 4 straight premierships. Other club players around this period included Adrian (Spanner) Morris, Paul Delaney and Mick Stewart.
Nordek participated strongly in the Country club championships and did not miss a year from 1978 for 17 years. It was in Bowral that one of our most memorable defeats of South Canberra happened in the semi finals –unfortunately that win took too much out of us and we went on to lose the final to a strong Cardiff side. Another memorable championship was the two Ballina Country club games.
In the 1 st we reached the final after two games which went into penalty shoot outs. We were 4 goals up in the grandfinal and lost our 3 rd player to 3 fouls in the 2 nd quarter and had to play a man down for the 2 nd half. We lost to Tamworth in by one goal. We eventually won the title in Albury in 1990's.
Our women won the Country Club Championships in Albury in 2012 and Country Districts Championships in 2016. Our men won the Country Club Championships in 2015.
