World Footy News

Austria has had an Australian Footy presence since 2004, initially with the Vienna Kangaroos and currently the Styrian Down Under Dogs based in Graz, who play in the Croatian Australian Football League and is this month about to debut in the field of International Footy, with the national team the 'Avalanche' taking on the Croatian Knights. 

Editor's update: this article referred to the possible full field debut for Austria (16-18 per side as opposed to 9s), however it has since been confirmed that such a match will not take place this year.

As Croatia is provisionally ranked  (40.61 rating points) and Austria (starting with 40.00 points) making its international debut,  the match will have no impact on our unofficial World Rankings.

In the absence of any preview or promotion so far of this European Footy "First" we can, however, predict the Rating Points of the competing Nations regardless of the outcome. It is assumed that the match is being played in Zagreb and the rating gap with Home Advantage is therefore 3.61. As the system predicts the higher ranked team will win more often than not,  a Knights victory (of less than 40 points) will produce a Rating Change of +/-0.96 points. Croatia (five internationals) finishing  with 41.56 points and Austria (first international) with 39.04 points.

If, however, the Avalanche can buck the odds and produce a debutante win, then the rating change would be +/- 2.04 points and Austria would finish with 42.04 points and Croatia would slip to 38.57 points.

If this match is actually played in Austria then points will be different - information has been hard to find.