Post SV in Vienna hosts the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Trophy from Friday to Sunday with each of the eight competitors hoping to earn one of the two promotion spots on offer.
It is a high quality line-up with 14 players who contested the EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Heidelberg in January named in the squad lists including Post’s player-coach Benny Stanzl who helped Austria win gold.
The format sees two initial groups of four from which the top two go into the promotion group, Pool D, and the bottom two into a relegation group.
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Find out more about each with our preview below
Pool A
AD Lousada (POR)
AD Lousada are looking to bridge a 21-year gap to both theirs and Portugal’s last representation in the top division of the men’s EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup.
It follows back-to-back fourth place finishes at Trophy level and they will look to use that experience to guide them here. José Valinhas was their top scorer last year with 10 goals in six games in Budapest and was recently part of his national side as they finished in seventh place in Heidelberg.
Other key performers include Vasco Ribeiro – who scored 13 times in the Portuguese playoffs which they won last weekend with a 6-1 final win over Benfica – and captain Ricardo Teixeira.
Gaziantep Polisgücü SK (TUR)
The 12-time Turkish champions are loaded with international talent and looking to make a return to the top tier where they competed from 2022 to 2025.
The club provided half of the Turkish side that played in the EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Heidelberg in January including Ali Akin Özkiliç, Müslüm Ekinci, Celal Aydin, Sait Kalkan and national captain Onur Acikgöz along with young goalkeeper Tolunay Kasim.
Argentina star Maxi Valdes is available once again to play a role for the side but their usual Iranian influence has been limited this season due to visa issues.
They finished as runners-up in the Turkish competition this season, meaning next year will be the first time since 2016 that a different club will represent Türkiye.
Post SV (AUT)
Austrian hosts Post SV (pictured above courtesy of Austria Hockey/Elmaximusmanfredo_Photography) have four of the panel which finished in third place in the Club Cup in 2022 in Alanya in their previous competition on the Euro indoor scene.
Theirs is a young and well-balanced team with two experienced players, Benjamin and Patrick Stanzl, who have already won several titles with the Austrian national team. Indeed, the former will take on the player-coach role hot on the heels of European gold with Austria in Heidelberg in January.
He says of the tournament: “We are very happy to be hosting the tournament and we know that the overall level of the competition is very close. We will take it game by game and always aim to perform at our maximum level.”
The side ended in fourth place in the Austrian championships.
Three Rock Rovers (IRL)
The dominant force in Irish indoor hockey, Three Rock Rovers are playing in their 12th European campaign since 2011 having completed their fifth successive National Indoor Trophy title last Sunday with a 5-2 final win over Corinthian.
It will be their third time playing at Trophy level following Mannheim (6th) in 2023 and Plzeň (7th) in 2024. They earned promotion two years ago with a late Challenge I run in Puconci to rise from fourth to second on the final day.
Five of their panel were part of the Irish side who debuted in the EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Heidelberg. They include Ross Canning who has scored 66 goals in 42 Euro indoor club games, Jody Hosking is similarly experienced while James Walker and Harry MacMahon are established internationals.
Goalkeeper Stephen O’Keeffe is the Irish captain and he joined the club for the indoor season from home club Railway Union. Irish Under-21 international Ryan Williams is a rising star.
Pool B
Iris Hockey Lambersart (FRA)
Iris Hockey Lambersart will be making their first appearance in European men’s competition with the majority of the panel experiencing this stage for the first time.
They do have a smattering of European experience in their panel. Arthur Golliot impressed two years ago for LUC Ronchin in the Club Cup in Vienna, scoring seven times in six games.
He was also their leading scorer in the French championship with 12 goals as they finished in third place with CAM 92 ultimately winning the title.
Adrien Cousin played for Valenciennes last year as they ended in third place in the Trophy in Budapest, netting five times. Blaise Lesueur will also be a key man in front of goal.
LKS Gasawa (POL)
LKS Gąsawa is a family-oriented club with rich traditions, founded 56 years ago in 1969. This season will mark the club’s debut in European indoor club competition, following their maiden Polish indoor title in 2025.
The club originates from a small town with fewer than 1,500 inhabitants, yet it is widely regarded as one of the leading clubs in Poland in terms of youth development. In their community, it is often said that children are born here to play hockey.
The key figure is the captain, Jakub Janicki, a homegrown player who is a member of the Polish national team who won silver in Heidelberg.
The team is further strengthened by former Polish youth internationals, including Robert Gruszczyński and Ryszard Wiśniewski, Under-21 Euro champions in Lisbon in 2017.
The squad also includes two Asian champions and current Indonesian national team players Yuan Hibatullah and Revo Priliandro, who joined the team for the current season.
The coaching staff also possesses extensive international experience. Head coach Maciej Wrzesiński was previously the Polish women’s coach. Mateusz Mazany is now responsible for video analysis due to a knee injury; he was also part of the coaching staff of the Polish women’s national team during their World Championship-winning campaign in Porec.
“The team’s objective is to represent Poland in the best possible way in international club competitions,” emphasises head coach Maciej Wrzesiński.
“The minimum goal is to maintain Poland’s position at this level; however, the team will strive to achieve the highest possible rankings at the tournament.”
Two weeks before the tournament, the squad competed in the final stage of the Polish championships. In the semi-final, LKS Gąsawa were defeated by KS Warta Poznań 3–6, while in the bronze medal match they secured a 5–2 victory over AZS Politechnika Poznańska.
OKS SHVSM Vinnitsa (UKR)
Ukraine’s leading club is looking to bounce back up to the top tier following relegation a year ago in Wettingen with an eighth place finish. Two years ago, they earned promotion in Plzeň where they got favourable results against the likes of AD Lousada.
Their line-up includes seven of the team who played for Ukraine in the EuroHockey Championship II in January, finishing runners-up to Italy.
Chief among them will be Maksym Onofriiuk and Oleksandr Solomianyi who were among the goals on that trip.
Slagelse HC (DEN)
Slagelse Hockey Club is among Denmark’s leading hockey clubs with more than 20 Danish championships since the 1990s.
This time, the club is fielding a relatively young squad ranging in age from 16 to 24. Experienced players have stepped aside, and new talents now must show that they are ready to take over.
However, several of the players already have international experience from the EuroHockey Indoor Club Cup and national team matches. Most recently, a large part of the team also formed the core of the national squad that competed in Croatia in January.
Oscar Birch-Hald and Markus Appeldorf Hansen are among the most experienced players, each with several EuroHockey Club Cups behind them, while young players such as Hector Nørgaard, Oliver Sørensen, and Magnus Thorsted will bring experience from both the U21 and senior national teams to Vienna.
In goal this time is Anton Birch-Hald, supported by the very young Axel Refnov, just 17 years old.
Team captain Rasmus Westrup states: “We are heading to the EuroHockey Club Cup full of enthusiasm and with ambitions to give our absolute best. We will chase victory in every match, but at the same time we remain humble and have great respect for the seven other teams.”
He continues: “We are very keen to stay at this level and will fight with everything we have to secure Denmark’s place in the Trophy division.”
In the current season, the team is unbeaten in the regular season and is currently playing in the semi-finals for a place in the final which will be played at the beginning of March.
