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Sydney Olympics gold medallist Taryn Woods has recalled how Australia's women's water polo winners almost came unstuck in the semi-finals.

Victory in the women's water polo was one of Australia's most dramatic triumphs of the Sydney Olympics - but making the gold-medal match was arguably even more miraculous.

The history books show a contentious goal from Yvette Higgins with 1.3 seconds left on the clock earned Australia a pulsating 4-3 final win over the USA, sparking euphoric scenes at the Ryde Aquatic Centre.

But if not for a magical sliding-doors moment and the genius of coach and master motivator Istvan Gorgenyi, Australia might not have been on the podium at all.

"Probably the moment in the Games that people don't know much about is our semi-final against Russia," star centre-back Taryn Woods recalls.

"We were two goals down with about three or four minutes to go, and I remember when you are playing you have this confidence that you'll get there in the end.

"But I remember looking at the scoreboard at one point and thinking 'Oh my God, we're actually in trouble here'.

"There was a real chance that we weren't going to win even the semi-final but Bridgette Gusterson, our captain, scored the winning goal in that game with about 20 seconds to go.

"People thinking scoring that goal in the last second of the final but it was actually the semi-final where we nearly came unstuck."

It is ironic that in one of the most physical Olympic sports it was the intellect of Gorgenyi that ensured Australia did not come unstuck.

Woods credits the Hungarian, a silver medallist at the 1972 Munich Olympics and author of the coaching theory Hunting Territory, with bringing the best out of an Australian team that may not have otherwise excelled.

"We had lots of big personalities and other coaches might have put some things in the too-hard basket," Woods told AAP.

"But certainly managing those big personalities and making everybody feel equal played a big part in our success.

"I feel like it was unique to that team that everybody knew what they were bringing.

"Yeah, there were people who got more water time or played a bigger role but everybody felt that when they got into the water they were bringing something to the team.

"Nobody was ever making up the numbers.

"When you're in the middle of it, you probably don't realise how different a coach's approach that is to the norm but, looking back now, you just realise how unique and how really great an approach it was."