I don’t really know how to respond to that.

We won a protest against being kicked out of the league, but obviously the playoffs were not an issue.  Just when I thought that was the end, the General Manager of the league was quoted in a press release as saying in relation to our expulsion, that he understands we are disappointed but “…fairness and right must be protected, and the sporting success of VC Franken was based on a budget that they obviously couldn’t achieve.”  In other words, we cheated.  It was an argument that was voiced when the issues first came to light.  It follows that we bought players we couldn’t afford (and knew we couldn’t afford) and therefore had an unfair advantage over the teams that worked within an achievable budget.  Despite criminal proceedings being ongoing against our ex President (of which there is no mention), we cheated.

It is now two days later and my anger has not abated.  The club replied officially, and below is my reply.  It’s in German for the German press but the google translate version is reasonable.

Enttäuschung ist zu erfahren dass dein 1. Vorsitzender von dein Verein Geld ‘ausgeliehen’ hat (daß immer wieder ignoriert ist).
Enttäuschung ist zu arbeiten ohne dein Gehalt zu bekommen.
Große enttäuschung ist über Monaten mit alle dieser Probleme zu arbeiten, dich nie ablenken zu lassen, und dann nicht in Playoffs spielen zu dürfen. Was wir verdient haben.
Was Ich mich jetzt fühle ist weit über Enttäuschung weil Ich gestern gelesen habe daß diese Arbeit irgendwie ‘unfair’ Basis habe und zahlt deswegen nicht.  Daß es mit eine Aussage versucht worden ist, die Arbeit von mir und meiner Mannschaft einfach abzuerkennen, ist der bitterste Schlag von alle.  Alle die die Erfahrung in Leistungssport haben, wissen daß es nur eine Rezept zum Erfolg gibt: Arbeit.  Unsere sportliche Erfolg ist NUR durch Arbeit und Leistung ermöglicht.
Zusammen mit damals Sportdirektor Jochen Hauke habe Ich Monate lang günstige, talentierte, ehrgeizige Spieler gesucht in ein relativ kleine Budget zu passen.  Daß ist uns gelungen.  In vergleich zu andere Vereine haben wir viel weniger bezahlt für unsere beste Spieler.  Außerdem haben wir bewußt eine MANNSCHAFT gebaut.  Wir haben dann Monate lang konzentriert und zielorientiert gearbeitet (durch und trotz alle Probleme) um die beste Leistung herauszubringen.  Daß ist uns am Spielfeld gelungen.  Andere Vereine mit Geldprobleme ist es nicht gelungen.  Andere Vereine OHNE Geldprobleme ist es nicht gelungen.  Wie gesagt, unsere sportliche Erfolg ist NUR durch Arbeit und Leistung ermöglicht.
Außer unsere Arbeit und Erfolg herabzusetzen, die Entscheidung selbst stellt sich naturlich viele Fragen (zB Werden alle Vereine die ihre Gehälte während der Saison verkürzen auch so bestraft werden?  Oder die die schwarz Geld zahlen?  Beide Fälle verhinderen genauso eines “fairen und gleichberechtigten Spielbetriebes”.)  Aber sie sind Frage die andere Leute beschäftigen sollen.

The town of Eltmann is a tiny village near Bamberg in south Germany.  The region is Bavaria and the normal greeting here isn’t ‘good day’ but ‘greet god’. I don’t really know what they say after that because the accent is quite distinct.  The town is really nice and every day I feel guilty about driving my car to practice despite it being only about 1 kilometre from my apartment.  I have mostly used snow and rain and cold as an excuse but the one day I did walk it made my knee sore for the next week (it is slightly uphill).  So that has been the excuse for the rest of the time.

The team had been struggling and has continued to struggle.  We’ve had strong positions in nearly all of the matches we’ve played but anyone who says luck doesn’t play a part in sport is kidding themselves.  In one match we had an incorrect referee overrule on one decisive point AND a decisive service series that turned out to be ALL foot faults.  But we’ve kept working because, well, that’s the only thing you can do when things aren’t going well.

There are probably a hundred details I could relate but I haven’t the time.  Or the security clearance.   But to make up for it a few videos.

Here is the interview I did in the VIP room after the first match.

Here is a video of an interview I did before my first home game.

Here is a fan montage of our most recent match against the current German champions.

And to prove that Eltmann is a really important place, a news clip about a bank holdup that happened less than 100m from my apartment… without me noticing it until the police knocked on my door.

Some photos here.

3rd jan – radom
We returned from our 8 free days remarkably full of energy and happy to be back, the loss in bydgoszcz seemingly forgotten. Even the prospect of training on new years eve AND new years day didn’t affect the mood and we had some of the best sessions we have had this season. So when the other bottom team ventured to our gym, also dragging along a new coach, we were definitely not perturbed. And this time, it worked out the way it was supposed to. The new coach ‘miraculous turnaround’ that we had experienced in Bydgoszcz was apparently a local phenomenon. This guy certainly tried everything, but he had no chance. With the extra energy that can only be brought by a few days break from training, and each other, we dominated the match from the beginning. It was the easiest 3 points we have won this season and was a wonderful relaxing evening in the gym. Why can’t they all be like this?

Some photos are here.

7th jan – polish cup
Due to our streak of losses before Christmas, we finished the first half of the season in fifth place. In some leagues, ours included, that actually has a practical outcome. And the practical outcome is to do with the Cup. The ‘Cup’ in volleyball isn’t quite like the ‘Cup’ in football other than it is a knockout tournament. Every country has a different format, often radically different. In Italy for example, only the first 8 placed teams after the first round play in the ‘Cup’. In Poland, the ‘Cup’ is a long tournament with many rounds beginning at regional levels, with the top division teams joining in at either the last 16 stage or last 8 stage. And by not being in the top 4 after the first round, we got to join in at the last 16, giving us two extra matches on top of our European Cup commitments, giving us two matches a week for all of January.
Clubs get nervous about the extra games because by this time of the season they are not as optimistic as the beginning and an extra round of games is an extra obstacle in the fulfilment of the season’s objectives. Coaches hate the extra games because they stuff up the schedule and reduce the training possibilities. Players on the other hand, quite like the extra games because if they are playing they are not training. It might surprise you to realise that coaches always want to train more and players always want to train less. That is the eternal struggle. But I digress…
We were drawn with a team from Bielsko Biala, a city not far from us and the top team in 2nd league. The format is like European Cup in that it is played over two legs, home and away and we played the first leg at home. The only thing I can say about this match is that if you got through the preamble and description of how the ‘Cup’ works, you probably had about as much enjoyment as the few of our most rabid fans who actually came to the match. And just as you ploughed on hoping for a punchline of some kind as payoff for your efforts, they ventured out in the snow to see a victory, any victory. They got theirs…
By the way, our 3-0 victory all but guarantees us a place in the next round. All but…

Some photos are here.

Now I can understand to some degree the theatre of classical bullfighting with toreadors and red capes.  And I have even thought, albeit briefly, that running with the bulls could be something I might like to do myself.  But this particular brand of bull ‘sport’ seemed to be just taunting them and then seeing if you could get away in time.  Speaking to a local in the evening I learnt that all villages on the island of Terceira, where we were staying (and perhaps other places too), have their own festival each of which lasts for about a week during summer.  In ‘our’ village, it takes place on the beach in front of the hotel.  The local went on to say how noble and strong the bulls are and how exciting it is to get out there and test yourself.  And I further learnt that one person from the village was so seriously injured that he had to spend a month in hospital.  I guess they don’t include those highlights in the video package that they sell to tourists, but I was secretly the pleased the bulls got one back.

Once the educational part of the journey was done, it was time for the return journey.  And what a journey.  As I mentioned, the Azores isn’t the easiest place to get to and it proved to be even harder to leave and our planned itinerary had us going straight to Bydgoszcz for our last match before Christmas.  The first leg was straightforward and actually quite pleasant.  The 10.30 departure was very civilised and the flight to the main island of Sao Miguel was just a short hop.  Even the nine hour wait was welcome as it was more than enough time to venture to the capital of Azores, Ponta Delgado, and have a really rather excellent lunch at a very nice restaurant and still get back to the airport in time to settle in and actually do some preparation for that match.  Those hours in the airport were however the last part of the journey that was okay.  From that moment on, none of the journeys or transits were long enough to sleep.  A two hour flight had us landing in Lisbon at 1am, for our 6am flight to Munich.  That three hour flight connected perfectly with our 1.5 hour flight to Poznan where the bus met us to take us the last two hours to Bydgoszcz where we arrived at about 4pm after about 30 hours of travel, including 4 separate flights and 1 bus trip.  And no sleep.  And a game tomorrow. And a training in 2 hours.  But there was one small touch of home when I opened the hotel room to find a huge picture of the 12 Apostles hanging over the bed.  But I was asleep too soon to look at…

portuguese adventure – part 2

The first ‘glitch’ was that due to its out of the way nature instead of travelling the day before the game we had to travel on Monday for a Wednesday match.  The travel wasn’t too bad, just one bus trip and three flights in 16 hours and we arrived in as good a condition as you could expect.   At least our hotel was right on the beach.  An entire day in any destination is a rarity and given that the only training time we could arrange was 8.30pm we had virtually the whole day to be tourists which meant I got to see a bit of somewhere before ticking it off on my ‘places I’ve been’ list.  I can report that the town of Praia Vittoria on the island of Terceira is a very pretty place.  It is neat and tidy and clean and obviously tourism oriented.  And in December even if it is too cold to swim in the ocean, it is warm enough to splash around for a few minutes.  That was enough for me and I didn’t shower to rest of the day so I could keep the ocean smell on me.

The reason we couldn’t get an earlier training time was that the gym in the town is a school gym and all the local hobby teams had to use their normal practice times.  It was like being back in Australia!  It became slightly more problematic when we arrived the next day for the game and were refused permission by the gym caretaker to walk on his hallowed court with our dress shoes.  We politely ignored him but the coach was outraged.  For me it wasn’t the first time, although it was the first time since I was coaching in division 4 in Germany.  As it turned out, given that it was a European Cup match and televised on Portuguese TV, we were given a special dispensation and the police didn’t need to be called.

Given the size of the town, we didn’t expect a big crowd but were still a bit surprised that 35 minutes before game time there were only 2! spectators in the gym.  What brought a smile to our faces was that they were huddled under a giant banner that read ‘Volleyball is our passion’.  It turned out though that 30 minutes was the moment that the crowd was let in and for the few hundred that did rush in, it was clear that volleyball was their passion as they provided a great atmosphere for the match.

In the end though, that was not enough to make the match memorable as we won easily and booked our passage to the next round and a trip to Kiev.  I am looking forward to that because Ukraine is the place of (half of) my ancestors – and because there are direct flights from Poland!

But before we worry about that we had to get home – and that is a story in itself…

portuguese adventure

Take yesterday’s match for example.  All the evidence of the previous matches would have predicted an easy victory for Kedzierzyn.  They were undefeated, playing well and were at home in front of one of the biggest and loudest crowds in the league.  We, on the other hand, had lost our last 3 out of 4 in the league and were playing just three days after one of the most dire performances anyone (certainly me) could imagine.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the three points.

The match was completely the opposite of what anyone ought to have expected.

Where before we were passive, yesterday we were aggressive.

Where before we were disorganised, yesterday we were organised.

Where before we played dumb, yesterday we played smart.  And of course,

where before we were unlucky, yesterday we were lucky.

And what makes it most interesting, is that there was no reason for anyone, except perhaps our faithful fans, to expect it.  Any of it.

So the crisis is (probably) over and we finished the first round on a high note.  The league is very close, so we will likely be 5th when the round is finished but certainly within reach of all the places above us.  Tomorrow we head towards New York and stop in the Azores to play the second leg of our European Cup match against the Bastardos.  On yesterday’s form, that ‘should’ be a formality, but in reality the best we can hope for is ‘could’ be a formality because you just never know…