Post SV will make their debut in the EHL KO16 having got a taste for the competition in the Ranking Cup in 2022 in Egara after they ended a 17-year wait to become Austrian champions.

And Austrian legend Benny Stanzl is hoping they can make a big impact when they meet Switzerland’s Rotweiss Wettingen in their opening fixture: “We see the first game as a 50:50 chance and will do everything we can to get a win – that is our clear goal.” 

Now 35, he brings an incredible volume of experience and know-how to his home club having won the EHL with Harvestehuder THC in 2014 and then taken silver with Oranje-Rood in 2017.

He took up the game with the club almost as soon as he could walk before moving further afield when he was 19 with Munich and then HTHC and OR, winning national titles in both Germany and the Netherlands. 

He also has a bronze from the Hockey India League with the Delhi Waveriders along with indoor World Cup and European golds to his name.

But he never forgot his roots and now, after a long injury, he came back at the end of the last year’s indoor season and is inspiring the next generation.

Young players like Jakob Kastner, Mateusz Nyckowiak and Peter Kaltenböck are emerging and participated with Austria at the EuroHockey Championship in Mönchengladbach this summer. 

In Bohdan Kovalenko, they we also have a very experienced player in international competitions with Ukraine as well as a lot of International club competitions. He played in the EHL in 2018 with HC Minsk.

Thus far, they are four from four in the Austrian Bundesliga with Maximilian Scholz scoring seven times. 

Head coach Marcin Nyckowiak adds: “We are still a really young team with some important experienced players. We gained a lot of experience at international club tournaments like the EHL Ranking Cup in Terrassa two years ago and some EuroHockey Club Trophy tournaments. 

“Now our goal is to make the next step at the highest international club level to earn our first ever win at the EHL in our club history, which is definitely possible.”

From last season, Lorenz Breitenecker and Theo Morawec move up from their own youth section to the senior panel while Konrad Hauswaldt joined from Berliner SC in Germany.

Moving on, Bastian Valas went to KHC Leuven in Belgium) while Jan Grüner and Daniel Geißler both went to Lisbon for study reasons.