Club History

 

The concept of playing Aussie rules football in Austria was born out of a group of Aussie expats meeting up for a kick (weather pending) on the occasional weekend. Often after a hard work out we would retire to the sanctuary of Flanagans Irish pub for rehydrahtion and ponder the idea of having a regular kick. After a few rounds we were all under the impression we were younger, more talented and fitter than reality and from the ensuing conversation it was decided that we would have a go at establishing Aussie rules in Vienna.

2004

First thing was first we had to have a name - after throwing around various ideas (The Wiener Schnitzels was considered for a while) it was agreed upon to go for an Austrian/Australian mix and call ourselves the"Wiener Dingos". Flanagans came on board as major sponsors by providing us with playing jumpers and Wocka returned from Australia with the rest of the kit purchased at Dimmys. Needless to say the shorts were on special as they were circa 1983 "Warwick Capper" specials but we did look the part on our first official outing at the Central European Championship in Dusseldorf in 2004 against Germany, Belguim, France and Spain. Needless to say we got wallopped but everyone had a great time and the fellow Aussie rules enthusiasts we met from other countries were a great bunch of blokes. Those tight shorts are said to be the reason for two of the players to become fathers nine months after the tournament.

2005

2005, the Dingos enhanced their local recruitment and attended the EU cup inLondon. This was a level up if you like against some of the more established nations and we put up a good fight. Puntigamer came to the fore with sponsorship in the format of caps and polo shirts and once again we gave the title of "best dressed team" a shake.

2006

2006 saw a major change for the Dingos. It was decided to change our name to something more symbolic with Australia and more identifiable to locals, hence the "Vienna Kangaroos" were born. After a major recruitment push into a few other pubs, the night finally occurred where we had more Austrian nationals at training than Australian, something that we had only dreamed about. This was a major turning point for the "Kangaroos". Martin, one of our new Austrian recruits constructed our web page and we set up an official registered sports club.

Suddenly things were starting to take shape. We came into contact with people in a similar stage of development with Aussie Rules in Croatia and Czech Republic and after a quick chat all committed to each country holding their own tournament in a "tri-nations" cup. Austria held the first competition with the "Schnitzel Cup" occurring in July 2006 in Vienna. Then the team travelled to Zagreb to partake in the "Croatia Open" in August and the final event the "Prague Cup" being held in Prague in September 2006