Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

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Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Thursday, April 07 2011 @ 06:15 pm ACST
Contributed by: Aaron Richard
Views: 3,148

After 2010 saw Croatia take out the gold at the Euro Cup and three clubs play out a 12-game season in the Zagreb area, 2011 will see the Croatian domestic season expand with an international flavour.

The HLAN (abbreviation for the Croatian title meaning "Croatian League of Australian Football") will kick off with three teams, as it did in 2010, but the only team to return from last season will be the Velika Gorica Bombers.

Croatia's two oldest teams, the Zagreb Hawks and Agram Power, will spend 2011 on hiatus, due to a combination of injuries, players with other commitments, and lack of sponsors. Players from the Hawks and Power will compete with either the Bombers, or new fourth Croatian side the Zaprešić Eagles.

It is hoped that the Hawks and Power will re-emerge in 2012 to give Croatia four functioning clubs, but in the meantime the Styrian DownUnderDogs from the Austrian city of Graz will be competing as the third team in the HLAN.

The HLAN 2011 kicks off this weekend, with the Velika Gorica Bombers taking on the Zaprešić Eagles on Sunday, April 10.

For more information, visit http://footycroatia.com.

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Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Thursday, April 07 2011 @ 10:00 pm ACST

Are the Styrian Downunder Dogs playing in the Croatian League and the Austrian league?

Cam

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, April 07 2011 @ 10:36 pm ACST

A shame that the existing teams shrunk. Probably does not bode well for Croatia at IC11.

I know very well the AFL cannot/will not offer much support for flights to Australia, but I think it would be very worthwhile finding a way of getting Croatia down. They have been a very impressive nation in the 9s across Europe and it would be significant to get a country from eastern Europe to IC11.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Friday, April 08 2011 @ 07:05 am ACST

There isn't an Austrian league as such, rather a series of matches between Graz and Vienna. As far as I know, this will continue, as well as the other usual Austrian matches vs Munich etc.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Friday, April 08 2011 @ 10:26 am ACST

Heartening to know that the Austrian "league" will continue and that the Downunder Dogs will be be playing more games in their season. Can only be good for them and the Croatians.

Yes! Would be a pity for the Knights not to make it to TC11.

Cam

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Saturday, April 09 2011 @ 09:58 am ACST

For the record, it's roughly the same distance Graz-Zagreb as it is Graz-Vienna, less than 2 hours by car.

The other place in that neck of the woods where there's been talk of a team for a while is Ljubljana, Slovenia. This would be great for both the Austrian and Croat clubs, as Ljubljana lies roughly in the middle, although not on the main route from Zagreb to Graz.

A club in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, would be within about half an hour of Vienna. Budapest in Hungary wouldn't be far either.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: kolja51
on Tuesday, April 12 2011 @ 12:52 am ACST

DownUnderDogs this year will only play Croatian league (interleague), as I got email from Ben in Vienna saying that there's no one left to run Vienna's team. Croatia lost a team from last year due to some long term injuries and some players having to get a second job due to a recession in Croatia. As for Croatian chances for IC, they are close to 0, as no company in this recession time is willing to invest in anything new. We are only after the plain tickets as we would stay in Croatian communities both in Sydney and Melbourne.

Yesterday we had our first match between Velika Gorica Bombers and Zapresic Eagles. Eagles won big time (don't know score right now), and Brett Kirk was helping both teams as a runner and coach. Maybe we dropped from 3 teams to 2, but the number of fans grew, and there were about 40 people there to see us play (and to enjoy BBQ, of course).

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Aaron Richard
on Tuesday, April 12 2011 @ 07:06 am ACST

That's a shame, both about the Vienna Kangaroos and about Croatia not likely for the IC. Looks like the only new European nation at the IC this year might be France.

Hopefully someone new can take over the reins at the Kangaroos and some local growth can continue in Austria.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Tuesday, April 12 2011 @ 10:19 am ACST

It's time we published an official update on likely attendees and hopefully we can organise something soon through the leagues and the AFL, but in the meantime, Aaron you mentioned only likely to be one new European team. What can you tell us about the status of Iceland and Switzerland at this stage?

Regarding the recession in Croatia, I don't think most Australians truly appreciated how tough economic conditions have been around the world in the last few years. True that some Australians lost money and jobs, but for the majority it was nothing like the rest of the world. We didn't go into recession and unemployment was fairly steady. Many developed countries went to over 10% unemployment and have stayed there. As an aside, somehow our Federal Government didn't manage to sell that message and almost got booted out, something very rare for a first term government when the economy is going well.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Tuesday, April 12 2011 @ 10:49 am ACST

Howdy kolja51(kojak)

Having 40 or so spectators out enjoying the sun, the BBQ, and the footy(not necessarily in that order) for the Eagles first match must have been heartening. Hopefully they all managed to get a touch of the footy whilst they were there(as well as all the players :-) ) and those curious onlookers amongst the 'crowd' all know when and where the next game(and BBQ) will be.

Sad that both the Croatia and Austria(leagues/clubs) have taken a hit in the economic downturn but it must be heartening I guess, that the players that are left are able to play 'regular' games. Best of luck with the 'interleague'

Cam

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Croatians welcome Austrians to the league

Authored by: Troy Thompson
on Tuesday, April 12 2011 @ 12:46 pm ACST

Might be time to go back and have a look at my earlier suggestion of a World18 or Rest of Europe team that could have two or three players from each country who may be able to pay their own way or fundraise in their own country? Some may already have tickets. Can at least give those that are keen a chance to represent their country even if it's part of a combine.

I think I also said before that if maximum country attendence is the goal of the IC (not that I think it is) then holding the IC in Europe would be the most likely to acheive this (yes logistically difficult).

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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