Champions Tumble to 5th Loss / Salzburg’s Perfect Day / Grenoble’s Surge
Observations & Opinions
From Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
And from Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
Spittal, Austria – By Harold Abrahams – Special Correspondent for TSS
The most anomalous fact in the entire catalogue of statistics, numbers and outcomes generated by 154 seasons of Wiesespiel is that the 3rd Team to ever form – the Schuhplattlers of Spittal – have won the Tyrol Cup only twice: in 1877 and in 1885. They have not seized that most prestigious trophy in the Meadow Game for 140 years.
I ruminated over that last Saturday a few hours before attending the latest edition of the third–oldest rivalry in the sport as the Villach Tirolerhuts came twenty miles to the northwest that morning to challenge Spittal. After Week 12, both teams were positioned well to try to promote from the Alpine League back into the Tyrol. But the truth is that over their 154 years in the AL, the Schuhs have played in too few games whose winner would lift a Trophy; five Tyrol Cup Finals (yielding those two triumphs) and 3 Meadow Cups (and the latest of those came 51 years ago). Now, to leaven my criticism of this club and ameliorate any hurt this article causes to a town and its people – both of which I adore – I will ask you all to read my “Final Note” this week regarding the marvelous results the Schuhs have created in the 63s and the man most responsible for more than a few of those victories.
Back to Week 13, Season 154. Villach and Spittal. That magic pairing is, ultimately, all that the citizens of Villach and Spittal care about: this iconic meeting known affectionately as a “Hats versus Shoes” game or, as TSS writer Albie Meissen famously dubbed it in 1952, the “Head-to-Toe Classic.” For the 207th time, these neighbors prepared to roll up their sleeves and pummel each other. And there were consequences to this match: both teams are striving to return to the Tyrol League and have, with Vaduz and Eisenerz, created a 4–team knot at 8—4—0 and 24 points before first bells rang over 32 Meadows on a Saturday that ushered this campaign into its final third.
Nine thousand fans gathered and waited for the teams’ warm–ups to end and the starting 10s to take their places. Based on the forest green hats and green–and–gold scarves in view, half of this buoyant crowd were Villach supporters.
Captain and Center Frank Hofferan, whose excellence has driven the Huts to several close victories this season and earned him a TSS Player of the Week nod, scored a 3 within 4 minutes of the opening, and half of the audience hailed their hero. 3—0.
Within 4 more minutes, the Schuhs’ most dynamic player, Anselm Dusl, a shifty Schliessman who can also boast of a TSS Player of the Week accolade from this season, had answered, and the other half of the audience cheered their lads.
3—3.
At halftime, the score was 9—9. Each team had a 3, a 4, and two kicks.
When the 43 began, Spittal scratched ahead by 2 on long kicks by Hofferan, then Villach led by one after Jonas Kollek’s sinuous run for a 3. A game cannot progress in a more even manner. Ties and one point leads, contested passes and runs. Spittal’s Captain, Leo Fiser, gave the home team a 22—19 lead with five minutes remaining in the 43 … and 90 seconds later, Tomm Ringl scooped up a loose (and half–frozen) ball and managed to bounce off several tacklers and fall in for a 3 that, you guessed it, tied the game at 22—22, which became, a few moments later, the final score.
The tie was only fair: these teams are equally committed and equally talented. At 8—4—1, The Heads and Toes are on 25 points and trail Vaduz by 2 after the Diplomats beat Zillertal in an exciting 25—21 match, but they lead Eisenerz and Matterhorn by a precious point.
Oh, and those 207 matches? This particular contest produced their 17th tie. As for the 190 other contests … Villach has won 95 matches … and Spittal has won 95 matches.
Grenoble, France – By Zino Stiles-Johnson – Correspondent for TSS
Which team in the Tyrol League won its fifth consecutive game on February 7? Which team, in Weeks 9–12, won four consecutive road games by a total of 33 points? Which team defeated the Armed Bears in Bern by 6 and then, a week later, clobbered Kitzbühel by 12 in Austria? The Grenoble Gantiers’ very successful last month drew this correspondent to the large city in southeast France that calls itself “The Capital of the Alps.”
The experience of watching the Gantiers on Saturday left me unsure if this is a team that can win the Tyrol Cup or not. They defeated an uninspiring Brenta team in an uninspiring way, 5—4, to raise their record to 8—5—0 and lift them into a tie for 3rd place with the struggling defending champion Bern Armed Bears. But their defense was not tested well on this day by a punchless Burci offense, and, other than Pierrick Yves, a warrior who does not hide whatever emotions rule him moment by moment, these Gates have never been a distinguished collection of back–liners.
But, when one considers the Glovers of the past few seasons, defense does not come to mind. Instead, Henri Tissier – La Comete – does. His electric speed has made him a high–scoring Farmhand, of course, but his charismatic elan and handsome face have also made him a favorite of the French media and countless female fans. Tissier’s scoring over the past month served as the catalyst for their winning streak and also catapulted him into third in the scoring table, passing Claus Binder to rejoin Paul Lackner and Leonhard Brunner in a trio that finished Season 153 as the three points leaders. However, on Saturday, the Bargemen played a straight Lock system that challenged The Comet and his fleet running mate, fellow Farmhand Masson Brunet, to elude 6 and 7 men to convert a skot. Tissier did just that, once, and Brunet scored on a kick, and Grenoble won in a tight, low – scoring game such as teams find themselves in against Italian squads. Fair enough. They won.
But it is hard to imagine the playoffs and see a team that has an accomplished defense (Salzburg’s, for instance … which has yielded 46 points fewer than Brenta to this point) and an adequate offense (the Edelweiss has Paul Lackner, Marco Bauer and Theo Mossman) – or a prolific offense and solid defense (does that remind anyone of the Hahnenkamms?) not finding a way past the Gantiers.
The home crowd was never overly enthusiastic this Saturday. Perhaps they have adopted the laissez-faire and utterly French attitude of Manager Claud Pompanile who said, after the narrow victory, “Eh …? What do you want? We are tired. A month on the road. We win at Bern … at Kitzbühel … at Cortina … and then we win again today. This game is very hard. Brenta needed to win, and they did what they thought best to do that. If they played the … wings … not the locks … maybe the score is 25–20, but I do not think they think they can win that game against Henri and Masson.” After a Week 8 home loss to Zurich, Grenoble was in 8th and playing with no imagination or promise. At that time, I was sure about them: they were poor, aimless and spiraling toward relegation. Five weeks later, they are a strong candidate for the 2–3. They have five matches remaining. Will they win all of those … or drop out of contention? After watching them play on Saturday, here’s my conclusion: who knows?
PLAYER of the WEEK:
Abrahams: Paul Lackner / Center – Salzburg. My colleagues and I have all already selected Paul Lackner as our Player of the Week this season (Ms. Stiles–Johnson has done so twice) … and now I join her in choosing him a second time. Please understand that I admired many wonderful displays of mastery and bravery on Saturday: Jovanni Insigne played a magnificent match for Trento … Bingo Allerspach had another big week for suddenly resurgent Füssen … Daniel Herzog played the match of his life for Kitzbühel. But in Salzburg’s perfectly played 25—6 rout of Vienna, Lackner was the best player by an astounding margin; superb athletes such as Willi Muhr and Nicolas Irmiger didn’t look a step too slow – they looked yards too slow. Lackner had 8 tackles in the back third and six more elsewhere on the Meadow; remember – he’s the Center! Hugo Thurner, anchoring the best defense in the Tyrol (allowing fewer than 10 points per game), had 9 tackles in his territory – only one more than his Captain. So, was Lackner playing a de facto Lock …? Hardly. He has so much verve, power, speed and energy this year that he loves tracking back, punching the ball lose, tackling unsuspecting Farmhands – and not gently, pitching in where he can. Team First. But, Lackner is bigger than that. He attacked with power, quickness and relentless aggression, powering in a 4 and three 3s … and adding a kick late in the 43. That’s 14 tackles and 14 points, readers. Those are numbers such as Max Steinwender and Henrik Grexxam used to post. We’re watching an historic season from an all–time talent. Savor it.
Stiles-Johnson: Daniel Herzog / Gate – Kitzbühel. Given my colleague’s reputation as the voice of the Meadow Game, Daniel Herzog may cherish seeing his own name mentioned in Harold Abrahams’ passage above more than in actually being selected as my Player of the Week, but select him I have. While Claus Binder, Gregor Heigl and Florenz Mader took turns gouging Bern’s inexplicably porous defense in the Kamms’ 27—13 stroll over the Bears in Bern, Herzog shadowed the great Leonhard Brunner and held him to 7 points; such is the Mule’s power and threat that any team will call that a small victory. Herzog was beyond exhausted when the final bell rang; cramps sent him to the turf, and his calf muscles were leaping and contracting on their own as he lay and tried to take in fluids. Binder and Manager Helmut Mair came to help him, and he flashed them a rueful smile and a thumbs up. The Kamms are 10—2—1 and lead Salzburg by 4 points and the next pursuers by 7. Energy well spent, Daniel Herzog.
ONE FINAL NOTE:
Abrahams: Historians might claim that the most influential figure to ever emerge from Spittal, Austria is the nobleman Virgil von Graben, but, as he passed away in 1507, I am going to write instead about Roland Grumlich, the greatest player in the history of that Carinthian town’s fabled Schuhplattlers – and a name that, more than any other in that town, will lead to stories and fables and memories of Wiesespiel success.
Grumlich was a Center who, in the 2020 TSS Annual, was rated as the 12th Greatest Player to ever stride onto a Meadow and wear his town’s colors, though Paul Lackner’s rise has since bumped Grumlich to 13th (to the disgruntlement of Schuhs fans: see their e-mails on our website after TSS released its revised Top Ten Players in the 2025 Annual). Grumlich, whose last name translates into English roughly as “irascible,” was often kidded about the irony of his surname, as his friends and many rivals, who were also friends, knew the genial man to be as mirthful a soul as had ever played the Meadow Game. He was also a relentless competitor and a man praised for his cool command of the field – perhaps the trait most prized in a Center and Captain.
Grumlich was the Schuhplattlers’ talisman during what must be called their only era of prominence in their long history; from 1921 until 1932, Spittal won the 63s six times – including claiming that title from 1921–1924 and again in 1926. If the Schuh’s Tyrol Cup and Meadow Cup collection is meager for an Original Eight team, Spittal can boast of having won the 63s the most times – 22, to Villach’s 19 and 16 each for Klagenfurt and Aggsbach.
Spittal fans are quick to shift any conversation about Championships to their dominance in the 63s. One can argue that to win a 63, a team must win only three matches during a time – May or September – when only the O8s are practicing and playing. Or, one can argue – as I do – that Wiesespiel can offer no more pure version of this game than what happens when those eight iconic clubs face off on one host town’s Meadow and clash for three rounds of games (of 63 minutes in duration rather than the standard 83, of course) over five glorious days.
The 63s are a family reunion, a week–long picnic, a celebration of spring or the closing of summer (in even the high elevation towns such as snowy Innsbruck), a chance to foment friendly rivalries, a Meadow Game feast, and a return to the game’s origins. Somehow, the tradition of the “Loser’s Lunch” was born in 1908; since then, whichever team loses its opening match by the widest margin must provide an outrageously generous meal on day four – the day off between the semi–finals and the Championship match. Just ask Klagenfurt Captain Allie Wurter sometime how he felt about the Wyrms having to host the Loser’s Lunch three years in a row (from 2022–2024) and serving as waiter to Villach’s table. Or ask Frank Hofferan to reprise his Captain’s Speech the next day, after the Tirolerhuts defeated Vienna in the Final, during which he thanked Wurter for providing them with the sustenance necessary to carry through the match.
And no one worked harder to protect its purity or maintain its structure than Spittal’s finest sportsman. Grumlich was an early and unmovable advocate for an adherence to the “grand spirit of the game” and a rejection of the more mercenary direction that other sports across the continent had taken – as early as the 1920s – as seen in jerseys with advertisements on them or athletes paid exorbitant fees to endorse products.
More vitally, though, Grumlich was a gentlemanly but resolute spokesman for the O8s when other teams asked to be allowed to play in the 63. A passionate historian of all things related to the O8, he could recite Teddy Kogler’s statistics, knew the starting line–up and reserve players of the 1902 Salzburg and 1903 Klagenfurt teams that both won Parzer Pairs, and, as a man shaped by his Christian faith, had memorized entire chapters from Peter Erland’s biography of the devout Vienna Composers star Finn Thaler, who acted as a mentor to Grumlich.
Grumlich’s favorite story to tell was of meeting “Spittal’s Grandfather,” Augustine Strasser, the man who spurred the creation of the Schuhplattlers. Strasser and other Spittal merchants were selling their wares in Klagenfurt on September 22, 1872, and wandered a mile or two westward with everyone else, out onto some bucolic farmland, to see a new game that Max Steinwender and his mates had declared they had invented as a means of “beating Villach in a new way.”
Strasser raced home after viewing this initial match, rounded up other strong young men, explained what he had seen in Klagenfurt and urged his mates to form a team. On September 24, they rode to Klagenfurt to find Max Steinwender – the unofficial ‘commissioner’ of this new league that was forming organically – to show him the new team charter they had written … and to challenge the men of Klagenfurt to a match. Strasser and Steinwender shook hands.
Grumlich was scrupulously fair and friendly. He almost had to be: look at the examples set for him. Two days after Steinwender accepted Strasser’s offer to play, he and several other Lindwyrms travelled to Spittal to teach the new team all the rules they had devised and walk them through some tips they’d learned – in their ONE GAME of experience – so that, if Klagenfurt won, they’d know their victory had come on equal terms.
Strasser wrote his father a letter in which he praised Steinwender as a great gentleman whose handshake “may have broken three or four bones in my hand.”
The second match in AL history took place a week later. The Dragons won 20—7.
Grumlich’s love for Spittal, the Schuhs’ founding, Strasser, Steinwender and the Original 8 and other such tales are NOT why he ranks in the Top 15 in the TSS Annual; he was a gifted player. But this man’s integrity and his identity as the man most closely identified with the 63s, make this writer very happy that Grumlich holds a respected, even revered, place in the story of the Austrian League.
Stiles–Johnson: Next Saturday – February 14 – is St. Valentine’s Day, of course. In anticipation of that day celebrating love, I asked a number of personalities to set aside their greater love for wives, families, children, God or country (assuming those loves come first!) and tell me something that they loved about the world of Wiesespiel. With thanks to those who responded in person or via text, here are some of those replies …:
Paul Lackner (Center – Salzburg): I love playing when snow is falling.
Sebastian König (Schliessman–Manager–Legend Ranked #7 in latest Top 10 Players list – Munich): I love the fellowship. My best friends are players I met from Oberammergau and Zurich. I met my wife at a restaurant in Grindelwald after a match in Interlaken that afternoon. I gave Wiesespiel everything I had … but even more, Wiesespiel gave me everything I have.
Anton Trenker (Farmhand – Innsbruck): I love the 63s more than anything. The first match I was ever taken to was Innsbruck versus Salzburg in the 63s first round in 2004; we won. We won the whole tournament that year. I don’t remember it very well … since I was 7 weeks old.
Juste Lévêque (Wing – Chambéry): I love our decke. The Elephants. Nothing looks as good.
Nicolas Calvet (Center – Mulhouse): I love the Steam Train decke we wear. Our exquisite badge – Mulhouse Locomotives – inside the puff of smoke from the train. It is perfect.
Marcello Rinaldi (Gate – Cortina): I love beating the Burci. When their shoulders start to sag, I know it is over.
Isak Ammeter (Lock – Sankt Moritz): I love that every town has a beautiful Meadow. Nothing compares to our field in Sankt Moritz, of course.
Erik Stromeyer (13–Year Old Supporter – Eisenerz): I love the Oresmen. The Tyrol League better watch out. Get ready. And Gabriel Thur is going to take over the Tor Medal. He’s better than both Mosers, Thurner, Von Steiger, Rinaldi. We’re coming.
Claus Binder (Wing – Kitzbühel): I love the One Team rule. My father is from Innsbruck … and my mother is from Kitzbühel. The great rival Austrian ski towns … Original 8s. I was 12, and very good at playing. I must choose a Junior team to join. But how do I choose? So, I listen to my mother. She told me, ‘Claus, whatever you do in life, I will love you and support you. Always. Unless you play for Innsbruck.’ My father laughed so hard that he agreed – I should become a Hahnenkamm. I am a Hahnenkamm. That was the team I chose. By rule, I cannot play for another team. And my heart would never let me.
Brother Martin Eder (Schliessman – Aggsbach): I love reading my Bible and praying before we leave the locker room for the field. I pray as the First Bell starts the game. And then I find someone and try to run him over.
Esme Rotemuller (Founder of the ‘Charmed Bears’ Fan Club – Bern): I love when all of us are walking to the Meadow … and the Alpenhorns are blowing … and that lovely Bernese flag is flying … and we know the Bears are going to win.
Bingo Allerspach (Farmhand – Füssen): Ilove playing in Bern. The flags, the Alpenhorn – that’s fine. But … the Charmed Bears. Esme Rottmuller is the most beautiful girl in the world. Ich liebe dich, Esme. Marry me!
Otto Von Steiger (Gate – Bern): I love when I hit someone and they go “oooof” and lose their breath for a minute or two.
Mule Brunner (Farmhand – Bern): I love when Otto cried at Champion’s Night last year. Off the field, he’s a baby. He sobbed. It was embarrassing.
Artur Hoffman (Manager – Vienna): I love when ten men all commit to a common good – defense, effort, giving a final ounce of energy to win a match.
Clara Muhr (“Super Fan” – Villach; i.e.: the “Oldest Fan in the AL”): Ilove when the Huts beat those nasty Worms. Sometimes I go into Klagenfurt just to watch the fans drape sackcloth on the old Duke.
Frank Hofferan (Center – Villach): I love Clara Muhr. I bet she wrote something mean about Allie or the Dragons. Though she’d call them the Worms.
Gerd Roare (Gate – Klagenfurt): Ihope you didn’t let Clara Muhr in on this. She’s just bitter because she was only 12 when we beat Villach in the first match ever – in 1872 – and she’s never gotten over it. Oh … right. What do I love …? Jokes about how old Clara Muhr is. And beating the Huts.
Thill Brenner (Correspondent – TSS): As a boy, I collected all of those books by TSS writers that were The Greatest Gates of the 1970s or AL Legends of the 1950s that had grainy photos of four stars on the cover. My favorite was one that came out in 1963: Living Legends of Wiesespiel. On the cover were Johan Klammer diving for a 4 … and Karl Rohr bleeding on his jersey – when was he not bleeding on his jersey? – and Noah Valeman about to hit someone in a Hahnenkamms shirt … and Matthias Durand, the Matterhorn Schliessman – catching the ball in mid–stride. I’ve read that book 50 times.
Adler Rotthauser (Gate – Vaduz): I love when TSS sends a team to cover our match. That means we are playing well. Teams want to be remembered in TSS. Thank you to Harold, and thank you, Zino, for visiting us this season. Go Diplomats!
Thank you to all of those who wrote back. You are invited to read 186 more messages on our website. And Adler, you’re welcome … and TSS does try to remember all the teams.