Meadow-Side / Playoff Finals Week
Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
While most of the attention in the Wiesespiel world was turned toward Bern, Switzerland on Saturday, vital matches were played in Kitzbühel and Villach, contests that were every bit as consequential to the four teams and their supporters as the goings-on in the Swiss capital were to the finalists vying for the Tyrol Cup.
And in outcomes that traditionalists across Central Europe who love the Meadow Game must be praising, the two Original Eight teams in action on this Finals Saturday earned victories and, more importantly, secured Promotion. In the perfectly picturesque Austrian village of Kitzbühel, the Hahnenkamms made it clear immediately that no one would beat them this day on their legendary old Heuwiese (“The Hayfield”) and dominated Eisenerz 18—6 to join the Alpine League champion Trento Dolomites in a return to the Tyrol League.
Not only that, in their dismissal of the Oresmen, Kitzbühel looked like the team that only two seasons ago won the Tyrol Cup before inexplicably falling from the 2022-23 Championship to a shocking relegation only twelve months later. Throughout the season, the Kamms were a tight-lipped team that dedicated themselves to erasing what Center Daniel Herzog called “a regrettable aberration that we will put behind us.” So, who is this team – whose personnel is largely unchanged since the 2023 Tyrol Cup victory claimed by a team whose offense was so much trouble to stop that their fans – among the great groups of supporters in all of the AL – called them “The Giant Slalom?”
On Saturday, they were not yet a team that can return to the Tyrol League and threaten Bern, but they were also not a team that belonged in the Alpine. And the return to form and the promise of greater achievement rested on Saturday, and will rest next season, on the play of Claus Binder. In March 2023, the then 18-year old Binder accepted the Thaler Medal after a rip-snorting year that stunned opponents and the media as he tore across Meadows league-wide. Against Eisenerz, he scored three skots and accounted for 14 points; this Claus Binder – healthy and happy – can keep the Hahnenkamms in the Tyrol League and challenge the Tyrol royalty for all of the Medals. You read it here first: Paul Lackner, Mule Brunner, Nicolas Irmiger … Binder is back.
On October 21, 1872, this seventh of the O8 teams formed over a dinner of schnitzel and sausage, writing that they were “always up for a good roustabout.” As a viewer of a league which values its heritage as much as any sport can, this correspondent welcomes the Kamms back to the Tyrol and can’t wait to hear the cow bells of 10,000 Kitzbühel faithful all next season.
Of course, one team which won’t be impressed by the traditions and long history of the Hahnenkamms is the Villach Tirolerhuts. The second-oldest franchise in Wiesespiel are only seven years removed from earning their 6th and 7th Tyrol Cups, but they slipped from the Tyrol to the Alpine to the Wheat League with the rapid turnover of almost their entire team as age and several injuries robbed the Huts of a potential dynastic run and re-made the roster. But, the team that originated the Alpine League’s most famed motto – “Fair Play!” – fully understands the nature of a sport that demands all and can exact harsh payments from the athletes who play it.
Ebensee had defeated Passau to earn the chance to visit Villach and steal the second Wheat League Promotion to the Alpine, but the Huts held on in a tense match to deny the Salters, 25—21. The Huts were down 15—21 with half the 43 gone, and an anxious body of some 11,000 supporters were vocal in their pleas to reverse course.
No one reading this report will be surprised that it was Villach legend (at this point, we agree that is a fair word, I trust), Captain Frank Hofferan, who spear-headed a rally that began with his Center play and spread out as the Schliessmann rallied back to help keep the Salters from scoring again. And while Hofferan only seems ageless, if the Huts are going to challenge for the Tyrol League in the next year or two, their new wave of young starters – particularly the precocious Forward Luca Reiter – will have to mature and add some weight and muscle. No such need for the powerhouse that is Wald Koppensteiner, who dictated play over the final 15 minutes from his Schliessmann position; as Ebensee ran out of steam and failed to broach the Villach defense, Koppensteiner shifted from the Lock position to a wide Wing, and his speed was pivotal as Villach scored two skots and two conversions. Inevitably, the score was 20—21 … and the final 25—21. And then the final bell was ringing, and the Tirolerhuts were back in the Alpine League, following the Chur Winemakers, who had already nabbed the first Promotion.
From the league-wide black cleats to the unchanging colors and classic designs of the team uniforms, Wiesespiel has an aesthetic appeal that few sports can rival, and almost no squad can match Villach for the beauty of their kit. The shades of field and flower, tree and wheat that are part of the landscapes surrounding Villach inspire the green and gold jersey and shorts the Huts wear, a shirt adorned simply with the emblem of their namesake Austrian hat.
With all due respect to an Ebensee team that played hard and must surely rue their late loss (and a special salute to Konrad Wurz, who was outstanding for the visitors) and failure to be promoted, Villach belongs in the higher echelons of the AL hierarchy. In a season in which no team was a deeper disappointment than the Klagenfurt Lindwyrms, who dropped with little resistance to the Wheat League, let us send well-wishes to their oldest rival, Villach, as they climb northward into the Alpine with a young roster which needs to find a formation on which it can rely but can already rely on as steady a force in Hofferan as any team can boast.
“Fair Play!” is a marvelous model to follow. Wiesespiel offers that weekly, of course. It also gifts its followers with brave play, fast play, athletic play, joyful play.
Thank you, all the players on all the teams, for a grand season.
Hurry back, Meadow Game!