Australian Water Polo Captain Nathan Power Balances Fatherhood and Leadership

Water polo is a brutal sport.

Relentless swimming. Incessant wrestling. Elbows and fists flying around as if the combatants were half-submerged within a flooded UFC cage.

To put it mildly, it is not a place for the faint of heart.

So it is somewhat incongruous, then, to see Australian Sharks captain Nathan Power sitting on the side of the Griffith University pool on the Gold Coast with his son, Sebastian in his arms, feeding him a bottle.

Power, 33, will lead the Australian men's water polo team at the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup event in Sydney this week, with the Sharks taking on reigning world champions Spain on Thursday.

He is also on six months of parental leave from his role as a manager with KPMG, giving him valuable time to be a dad as well as skippering his nation.

"It's been fun to get to do this," Power told ABC Sport, with Sebastian still in his arms.

"To get an opportunity to take time to be a dad, it's really special."

It's created some changes within the team environment too.

"This is the first time in my time with the men's team that there's been a baby on tour — and there's actually two at the moment, Blake Edwards has his son Jude here as well," Power said.

"It makes for a bit of a shift; even at breakfast time now, the boys all roll in and it's a case of, who's gunna take hold of the baby and who wants to look after a baby.

"It's amazing to see how a large group of men have all very quickly clicked into dad mode to help out where they can."

Head coach Tim Hamill, who has led the Sharks since taking the reins post-Tokyo in 2021, also made note of the positive changes to the dynamic young children can have.

"It's a first for us," the former international player told ABC Sport.

"One of our values as a team is around family, so we talk to that in having those families here.

"We're really fortunate to have a nice balance of the group, we've got the spectrum covered in terms of interests and ideas and for the first time, in this preparation, we've got two of our players who have children, which we've never had before.

"So that changed the dynamic of the group.

"A lot of people have spoken about Paris and how do we get those results [that we got] and I'm conscious to talk culture because it's that overused word in sport at the moment.

"But for me, culture as a word is derived from that care, there's real care in this team.

"We know that our culture needs to be the best in the world, we know that our team care needs to be the best in the world, otherwise we can't compete, so we invest time in all of that, and that's conversations with those 18s all the way through to 30 plus year olds and now fathers."

The topic of keeping mothers in sport has been a hot one in the Australian space for a while now.

In December, the Australian Olympic Committee created the Olympians Future Fund, with a key pillar of that designed to help support female Olympians return to high-performance sport after giving birth, making them eligible to receive $10,000.

Although Power's situation is different, he noted that the support that he has received from KPMG and Water Polo Australia was just as valuable to him in order to allow both he and his partner Maddy to continue their careers.

"That's kind of the thing that can maybe get lost at times, but really it's support for the family," he said.

"With the support that I get through my work at KPMG, that then enables Maddy to get back into work; the support I get from Water Polo Australia, that enables us as a family to be here.

"We both get to keep on pursuing what we want to pursue, but also get to spend some really meaningful time with Sebastian too.

"It's been awesome to come home from training and the first thing I see is a silly smile from the window, him looking out at me.

"It's a new, fun way to come home from training when you're a bit cooked and tired and maybe a bit grumpy."

Power beamed with joy when recounting how much Sebastian was enjoying finding his feet in the water during his lessons, adding that fatherhood has "massively" changed his perspective.

"I think, obviously parenthood becomes that key identity that you have and you see yourself as," he said.

"It's also something which for me, at 33, I guess we can probably confidently say I'm closer to the end than the start of my career, so it means you also get to take some moments and really appreciate that this isn't normal to get to do this and to share this experience with your family.

"It gets you to appreciate these experiences you have with the team too, because they can be very fleeting."

The World Cup Final is the first time Australia has hosted a major water polo championships since the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, and the first time Sydney has hosted a combined event since the 2000 Olympics.

Power said the opportunity to compete in front of friends and family will never be undervalued by the squad.

"The importance of it and the rarity of it is not lost on us," Power said.

"I've had teammates who've started their career and gone through their career and finished their career and didn't get that opportunity to be able to play in an event at home like that.

"Obviously, as we move towards Brisbane, this is one of those good examples of something which can hopefully lead to more of these events occurring as well."