World Footy News

In the first of a series of articles looking at the preparation and prospects of the various nations competing at this year’s Axios Euro Cup in Bordeaux, we look at the story of the Croatian Knights. Josip Kravar, president of the Association of Australian Football of Croatia (AAF), gives us his insights.

 The Journey:

“Players trained with their clubs until the beginning of June when they joined the Knights squad and 4 times a week preparation began. [Our] main focus for this year was development for a 16 per side team at the European Championship and we are satisfied with our work with young talent and our result at the European Championship. We were placed 11th on the world footy ranking, and what I can say is that we will justify that in future competitions.”

“[There were some] new players that emerged from our collaboration with Zagreb Sports Faculty and Zagreb University. [Along with] a couple of veterans and other well-known names in AFL Europe, this will be team that will go only for a gold medal at this Euro Cup.”

The Preparation:

“The SANH is working really hard and with the cooperation of the Sports Faculty we brought young talented players to footy. This will go on in 2014 and we hope that we will see some new talents, maybe for AFL one day. Also we started to build our new oval in Croatia. The Sports Faculty provided us with the ground. Once it is finished, hopefully at the beginning of 2014, it will be good progress for us. We play our league with an Austrian team from Graz (4 teams in league) and it is 9 per side. We hope that we will transfer to 18 per side in the next 3 years.”

The Squad:

“Our full squad will be known on 15th September as our group of 35 Knights compete for 16 positions. Players to be watched are young star ruckman Josip Habljak, Ivan Ivoš at Full Forward and skipper Tomsilav Cvetko who confirmed his good season, becoming our best scorer at the European Championship. The Knights trained hard during this year with new players gaining experience at the European Championship. The rest of the players are in good shape and we will go with no [fear] from the start of tournament. We are ready to win every game and show that 9 per side is our game.”

The Goal:

"Our goal for 2013 at the Euro Cup is 'gold only'."

The Final Word:

“In next 12 months we will focus our strength to raise more numbers with new talents, build our new oval and try to find sponsors for IC 2014. SANH are proud to have the youngest and I believe most talented team in Europe at this point in time. It will be interesting to see the development of our national team during the next few years.”

With a quarter final placing at last year’s Euro Cup in Edinburgh, and winning their match against Germany in Dublin to finish fifth at the European Championship, the Croatian Knights could be a big surprise packet in Bordeaux this year.