Bears and Flowers Remove Doubts / Fun With Numbers / Kamms Show Mettle
Observations & Opinions
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
And from Zino Stiles-Johnson and Thill Brenner – Correspondents for TSS
Salzburg, Austria – By Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
The Tyrol League table after Week Six’s matches presents two tiers; five teams are on 12 or more points, with Kitzbühel leading with 16 points on a 5—0—1 record after their gritty 14—11 victory in Trento. Then, three teams are 6 points and two have 3.
Saturday’s slate of games offered an examination of the teams that have designs on winning the Tyrol Cup next March.
Salzburg, from which town I filed this story for two weeks running (my daughter Gisele and her husband Niklas had their third child – little Daniel – baptized, and his proud Grandparents were not missing that!), faced a Zurich team that desperately needs points. During Week Five, the Edelweiss looked indifferent in losing by 11 to a poor Grenoble team and could not afford to repeat that performance. Concerns ran high as Paul Lackner was announced as unable to play after suffering an ankle injury last week, but the Flowers’ defense throttled the Tirggel as Hugo Thurner dictated play, and Farmhand Theo Mossman and Center Alois Eichhorn, standing in for the hobbled Lackner, played with spirit and speed. Mossman has been brilliant all season, and Eichhorn, who was a star throughout his junior career, may not have made anyone forget the Field Mouse, but he scored two 3–point skots and looked like the happiest lad in Austria all day.
Thurner cannot win the Tor Medal in December, but he was a giant once again in Salzburg’s 22—0 waltz, allaying any fears the Edelweiss faithful harbored once they heard that their hero and leading scorer could not play.
Bern were similarly imperious in their 19—0 win over a hapless Füssen squad that dropped to a 1—5—0 record and a –56 +/–. Mule Brunner is never a quiet presence on a Wiesespiel Meadow, but he has been relatively less conspicuous this season than last, as the Armed Bears started 2—2—0 after losing only two matches out of 19 last year as they stormed to the Tyrol Cup title. But Brunner did it all on Saturday with a 4–pointer, a 3–pointer and a long kick for his 8 points. And, almost as if Felix Moser, current holder and two–time winner of the Tor Medal, knew that Hugo Thurner, his counterpart in Salzburg, was leading his own Gate line to a shut–out victory, he played fiercely in producing an equally effective defensive showing.
And, as you will read below, Kitzbühel traveled to Trento to face a powerful Dolomites team with several superb Forwards to add to the predictably prickly Italian Gates and Locks. That outcome was the only close contest of the week in the Tyrol League, and that battle was close and decided very late.
The Vienna Composers, after a 24—0 victory over a lifeless Grenoble team, seems to have – with the gifted trio of Nicolas Irmiger, Willi Muhr and Johann Trimme perhaps rounding into form – every chance to bridge that gap and make this a 6–team struggle for the playoffs.
One–third of the way through Season 154, the athletes wearing the ten uniforms of the members of the Tyrol League have given supporters of the Meadow Game all that we hope for: pride, skill, determination and a pure love of what they do.
Vaduz, Liechtenstein – By Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
The Principality of Liechtenstein is indeed as charming as one expects and dreams it will be. As diminutive as a postage–stamp and with a population of only 41,000 citizens, its solid, peaceful place in the world is set and its pace is slow. However, that relaxed lifestyle is replaced on 9 Saturdays a year as locals stream down to the Vaduz Meadow, set in a natural bowl that accommodates thousands who can stand or sit on the gentle incline leading down to the playing surface, where their beloved Diplomats ply their trade.
After one-third of Season 154, Vaduz holds second place with a 4—2—0 record and 12 points (and an edge over the Black Eagles in point differential); currently, the Diplomats trail only Spittal and lead Matterhorn, Villach and Munich – legendary teams that do not want to be in Alpine League and expect to leap back into the Tyrol. Can charming little Vaduz keep pace with those giants? If the Lederhosen players are honest, they’d all say “Jawohl” after they were thoroughly outplayed in a 17—7 loss. In their last three matches, they have won by counts of 17—8 at Zillertal, 16—6 over Meadow Cup–holders Lucerne, and Saturday’s 10–point victory.
After opening matches in which they surrendered 21, 21 and 19 points and scrambled to a 1—2—0 record, Manager Bernard Stoch re-ordered the team’s line–up, shifting to a Lock–heavy defensive alignment. Since then, Captain and Center Joel Klestil and Gate Adler Rotthausen have maintained a much more calm and ordered presence on the field, and that unruffled control has led to the Diplomats’ vastly improved defensive record: 21 points over three matches … rather than per match.
The Diplomats Museum in downtown Vaduz has eight rooms. Three of them are dedicated to the Annus mirabilis – the year of miracles – that was 1900, 125 years ago, when the team won its only Tyrol Cup after a series of wins and upsets that defies belief and must be, in the Meadow Game’s storied 154 years of play, unprecedented in these circumstances: in successive weeks, Vaduz defeated the champions from 1896 – Matterhorn – and 1897 – Munich – to claim third in the final Tyrol League standings. Then they traveled to Kitzbühel to play the 2–3 and, yes, defeated the 1898 champions (!), 6—5 in front of a Hahnenkamm audience estimated to be 22,000 fans.
The following Saturday, the Diplomats completed what must seem by now like a miracle run indeed: they faced the 1899 champions from Grenoble – a powerful Gantiers club that had cruised to the top of the Tyrol League at 15—2—1 and were looking to win their second title in a row after beating the Black Eagles in the 1899 final by 22 points.
And Vaduz … somehow … won. 15—13. Go visit that delightful team museum and marvel in the shock and joy that rippled through the Principality when news broke that their boys had done it. Any fan of Wiesespiel must surely agree that we’d all be happy to see the Diplomats win the Tyrol Cup again sometime in the next 125 years.
Oberammergau, Germany – By Thill Brenner – Correspondent for TSS
The 1934-35 Füssen Triskelions captured their one and only Tyrol Cup in their third appearance in the championship round. Eleven years prior, they had battled the Passau Wolfsmiths and been found wanting, 22-13. Five years later, when the Tyrol Cup again hung in the balance, the Meadow was populated by none other than the very same two teams. Again, Passau got the better of the Füssens, this time by a 19-6 score. But in 1935, the Triskelions made history. They not only won that coveted trophy (finally!), but, oh my, the odd way in which they did it. Their record that season, which landed them atop the table after 18 weeks, was an unprecedented 10-1-7, totaling 37 points. Never before, or since, has a team played to seven ties. Two wins better but one point behind found Matterhorn, second with 36 points and a record of 12-6-0, and Innsbruck finished third at 11-5-2 and 35 points.
I mention this Füssen team, affectionately called the Tieskelions, because the Harvest League, after six weeks, has seen three ties already, with Scheibbs and Oberammergau each playing in two of them. And, this Saturday, I was in south Germany, in and about Oberammergau for their match with the Hounds, and the Troupers finished the 83 against Lugano with their second tie, 20-20. The ten point lead that the home fans were celebrating with 12 minutes remaining was gone a mere 8 minutes later. In fact, with barely more than 120 seconds to be played, the Troupers were trailing by 3 and had the full length of the Meadow between themselves and possible victory. Were it not for some brilliant and creative fieldwork by Center Detlef Eberhardt and his flanking Farmhands Senna Vroomen and Jörgen Jung, working in harmony and efficiency, those invaluable final 3 points were not to be had. But, finding and exploiting a slight seam in the Hound defense, Vroomen breached the Tor line with his hand and the nose of the ball, knotting the score with just a few remaining ticks on the clock. The comfortable win which had become a heartbreaking loss was now, if nothing else, the consolatory tie.
It’s unlikely that Oberammergau remains on pace for six draws this season, but the ‘34-’35 Ties also had two ties one third of the way home, and they made it all the way to seven (and even needed extra time in the Tyrol Cup match – which would have been their 8th tie were it not a playoff game). Nevertheless, Oberammergau will need more than 1 point per match if they have hopes of promotion, as they find themselves a not insignificant 7 points behind the front running Imst Bell Men.
PLAYER of the WEEK:
Abrahams: Francesco Russo / Forward – Cortina. The superb play of Marcello Rinaldi in recent years has led him to claim three Tor Medals and any number of nods as a Player of the Week or Player of the Match. Rinaldi is one of a host of great Italian Gates over the decades that have generated the impression that Italians play only defense. But that generalization cannot be applied to this incarnation of the Riflers, who sit second in the Tyrol League on 13 points and third in points scored with 109 (9 more than a Bern team that has been dubbed, at various times, an “offensive juggernaut”). On Saturday, both Russo and fellow Farmhand Oronzo Favro scored frequently against an overmatched Brenta team in the Riflers’ 30—11 win. Russo’s 11 points give him the award here by a slim margin over Favro, who tallied 9.
Stiles–Johnson: Hugo Thurner / Gate – Salzburg. My esteemed colleague Harold Abrahams wrote earlier this week about the three–field dominance exhibited by an Edelweiss team that, well, lacked Paul Lackner. Theo Mossman and newcomer Alois Eichhorn handled the scoring and Schliessmen Elias Hoffer and Marco Bauer elegantly managed the midfield. And Hugo Thurner, his deep voice echoing around the old Meadow, commanded his Gates masterfully, as Wellington must have done with the British at Waterloo. The Edelweiss are the only team in the Tyrol League yielding fewer than 10 points a game (59 points allowed in 6 matches) and have a +58 point differential – 21 more than any other team. May that matter, a great deal, when playoff spots are decided at season’s end? You bet. If it does, and Salzburg gains admittance into the exclusive fraternity of three teams that qualify for the playoffs, then be prepared to hand Hugo Thurner his first Tor Medal.
Brenner: Erzz Wallner / Forward – Imst. As my earlier byline noted, I took this Saturday to scout out a few of the teams that hope to play themselves back into the upper half of the Austrian League. And as exciting as another tie in Oberammergau was, my wonder was spent on the play of the veteran forward from Imst. The Bell Men tallied 25 points in a variety of ways and from a variety of starting spots, but in the middle of every successful attack on the Pontarlier 57s was Erzz Wallner. This season marks his 11th, and on display is the perfect blend of experience, seasoned conditioning, and informed anticipation. He ran in 2 skots and converted two kicks, but his 9 points were just the scorebook’s method of attempting to record how big an impact he made in the 25-16 Bell Men victory, their 4th in a row.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
Abrahams: I listened to an Italian radio broadcast of the Kitzbühel–Trento tilt, a match that decided who would claim first place at the 6–match mark (or, one–third of Season 154). Had the Dolomites won, they’d be on 15 points and atop the Tyrol League. But because on consecutive efforts, first Davide Lombardi and then Orso Veratti failed to force in a 4–point skot (due to the heroics of Gates Armindl Fasching and Danny Herzog), the Hahnenkamms left Italy with their unbeaten record intact and 16 points claimed from 6 matches, their frantic 29—29 tie in Week Two with Cortina the lone blemish on their spotless record). The 14—11 outcome was the only competitive match the Tyrol offered its viewers on Saturday, with the Riflers and Bern’s 19–point victories the next–closest contests.
Kitzbühel has passed every test put to them so far, have an array of dangers that opponents must puzzle out (including two of the top 6 scorers so far), and have won 4 matches on the trot. So, why do I feel unconvinced that when we look at the Kamms, we’re sizing up the team that will earn the automatic bid to the Tyrol Cup Final next March?
Cortina likewise has two lethal scorers (ranked #6 and #9), three–time Tor Medalist Marcello Rinaldi, a practical, sharp Manager, and a forbidding home Meadow on which to try to steal points from the hosts. Yet, for all their tactical expertise, for the Ringmauer Medal hanging in their Hall of Champions in that precious jewel box that is Cortina d’Ampezzo, for their newfound offensive prowess, again, I don’t see them lifting the Tyrol Cup, either.
My writing of the two last paragraphs has probably caused those two hotbeds of skiing and Wiesespiel – Kitzbühel and Cortina – to erupt in celebration as it must surely ensure a Kamms–Riflers Final.
I have watched 1,208 matches of the Meadow Game in person – as a boy, as a young man, and as a writer for TSS for 42 years (and that does not include practices and scrimmages, youth and development league matches, or so–called village matches that are not part of the 6–Division AL). And what I have concluded about teams that win Championships is that the single factor … the ingredient … the wild card that sees them through challenging matches and tense moments … is having the greatest player in the game on the field, neck–deep in the struggle, rallying his mates, fighting alongside and inspiring his teammates. Then, when a task must be done that decides victory or defeat, he proves a hair quicker, a mite more powerful, a shade more enduring, an iota more brave, a mote more skilled.
Here is the clear story to tell now – the example, known to all afficionados of the sport, of a team winning a title because they best player on the field wore their decke. In 1884, the Imst Bell Men made the Tyrol Cup Final. There, they faced a Salzburg Edelweiss team that held the Parzer Pair and which had beaten the upstart Bell Men in Imst 22–13 and in Salzburg by the utterly disheartening score of 30—7. How could lightly–regarded Imst overcome a team that had dismissed them with ease both times they’d met?
By having Henrik Grexxam. That’s how. Grexxam’s physical prowess made skeptics of anyone who had not seen him play; once they witnessed him in action, skepticism became admiration or hero worship. In the 2—3, Imst beat Spittal 20—17 … and Grexxam scored ALL 20 Bell Men points.
Salzburg, brimming with excellent players throughout their starting 10, made no special adjustments to their formation to account for the mercurial talent wearing the Silver & Blue of the Bell Men, and that was a mistake that they were unable to rectify until the 40 was over, and Grexxam had shredded the Flowers for two 3s and a 4, and the score was 10—3, and Imst was uncatchable. Grexxam scored ALL 16 Bell Men points in a 16—8 win that remains both the biggest upset the Tyrol Cup has ever produced and the greatest individual performance ever in a Final.
Imst became the first team from outside the O8 to claim a Tyrol Cup, and they also rolled on to victory in the Meadow Cup, claiming their own Parzer Pair in the summer of 1884.
I’m not suggesting that anyone in the Meadow Game in 2025 is quite Henrik Grexxam just yet. But sometimes, a team can do magical things if they just have the best player.
In the first half of 2025, Mule Brunner was that paragon. He was strongest and hardest to tackle and carried the Armed Bears to an historic 17—2—0 record during a season which evoked memories of young teams that turned into dynasties (the early 1970s Black Eagles being, usually, the standard against which such achievement is measured). After Bern downed Vienna 15—9 and lifted the Cup amid a crescendo of Alpenhorns, I believed them capable of claiming 3 or 4 titles in a row, or 5 out of 6. They are young and mighty but play with maturity and control.
And in the second half of 2025, Paul Lackner has been the best player in the world. He watched Bern bully everyone else around every Meadow in the Tyrol, saw Mule Brunner rightfully win the Purtscheller Medal (Lackner spoke openly on TSS’ website about telling his own father, a voter for all the Medals as a member of the Wiesespiel Veterans Committee, to vote for Brunner for whatever award he could win), saw a year of his career pass by without distinction. He asked his coaches what he could do to improve, he spent two weeks at Roger Federer’s farm in Switzerland, learning from that master athlete about getting right in diet and discipline, he gained 12 or 14 pounds in muscle, he worked with a sprint champion (whose name he will not disclose), and he, as he put it, committed to his Christian faith to keep him humble and aware of the relative importance of what he does. He exploded off the blocks in Week One and has been a cyclone of furious speed and play each time he takes the field … and even his absence through injury in the 43 of Week 5 and all of Week 6 testify to his greatness: Salzburg crumbled against a flimsy Grenoble team at home once Lackner was unable to play, and even after big weeks from Brunner, Willi Muhr and others, Lackner still leads the slate of top scorers despite playing only 75% of the season so far.
Therefore, I believe fully that either Bern or Salzburg will hoist the Tyrol Cup next March. Salzburg wants with a fierce desire to claim their 25th Cup … and Bern wants, with equal passion, to announce themselves as a dynasty in the making.
Stiles–Johnson: The last two weeks of results have caused quite a bit of volatility in the list of the Top Ten Scorers in the Tyrol League, and Paul Lackner’s ankle injury that cost him 126 minutes of play so far have allowed his talented rivals to nearly catch him at the top. Willi Muhr’s high–scoring Weeks 5 and 6 have propelled him into 4th from 8th just a fortnight ago. Currently, 9 players are on pace to surpass 100 points; last season, only Mule Brunner (at 105 points) and Lackner (102) accomplished that.
I daresay many of these elite scorers will drop back and not reach the 100–point barrier, but this start to the season resembles the wide–open 1990s; in 1991, seven players finished at 100+ points, led by Munich Lederhosen star Sebastian König’s remarkable 116 points; oddly, König, who ranks as the #7 player of all time in TSS’s latest Annual, won the Klammer Medal only once … but what a win. Let’s check in again in two weeks on this list, and let’s all hope that Paul Lackner returns immediately. I imagine Claus Binder, Leonhard Brunner and the rest all want to win the Klammer from Lackner, not pass him because he was injured.
Brenner: The Tyrol League is the Tyrol League – ten teams set apart from the other 54 in pursuit of that gorgeous, historic Cup. The players are elite, the coaches crafty, the Meadows glorious and the weekly battles splendid and honorable.
Last season, Füssen won 7 matches, finished tied for 7th, and averaged scoring and surrendering about 14 points a game (their +/- at season’s end was 2). This season, Christoph Teufel joined from the junior squad after dominating for 2 years, and the Bavarian hopes were that a few more wins, and many more points, were on tap for the Triskels.
Alas, Füssen is moving in the opposite direction. Thus far their offense has scored more than 7 points once – a 10-spot in their week 5 loss at Trento. Otherwise, they count one shutout amongst their total of a disheartening 32 points. Their -56 point differential is 2 points from the worst of the 64 teams, and they are tied for last with Zurich, their one victim this season, whose identical 1-5-0 record puts them both 13 points behind 5-0-1 Kitzbühel.
This season is their second in a row in the Tyrol, and none would say Füssen doesn’t deserve to be there. Their fans are beyond loyal (and why would anyone expect otherwise?), the Ammergau Alps are spectacular, their cupboards are home to one Tyrol Cup and two Meadow Cups, and the boys do not lack for effort and exuberance. But more points will need to be had if they intend to remain among the elite. Manager Dirk Klennig can waste no time in figuring out how to massage his lineup to get Koller, Allerspach, and their mates back in sorts and generating skots where kicks have become the norm. They cannot play with the thought of avoiding relegation, but if they don’t right the ship soon, relegation will be more than a thought they try to ignore.