Opinion AFLE
Games of 2026, part one: Panthers Wrocław end Vienna's unbeaten run
The first in a series on my favourite AFLE games of 2026. Panthers Wrocław came from 21-7 down in Vienna to win 34-31 and end the Vikings' unbeaten season.
The best game I watched in the AFLE's first season was Panthers Wrocław beating the Vienna Vikings 34-31 in Vienna on 8 August.
Vienna came into Week 12 at 9-0, unbeaten, and had already beaten the Panthers 42-23 in Wrocław at the end of May (results). The Panthers were 7-2 and, as their own report admits, the underdogs.
For a quarter it went the way everyone expected. Vienna led 21-7 after fifteen minutes, with Ben Holmes throwing two touchdowns and Karri Pajarinen running one in from 57 yards (box score). Most people would have written it off there.
Wrocław clawed their way back. Jameson Wang found Juan Flores-Calderon twice and Mike Harley Jr. once before the break, but a blocked extra point and a late Holmes touchdown to Darrell Stewart Jr. left them 28-20 down at half-time. Vienna didn't score another touchdown. The Panthers' defence forced punts and turnovers on downs (AFLE), and Karlis Brauns intercepted Holmes. Harley caught his second from 27 yards with nine seconds of the third quarter left, though the two-point try failed and it stayed 28-26 (play by play).
What stays with me is the atmosphere. There were 4,215 in the Wiener Sport-Club Stadion on a Saturday evening (Vikings), and the commentators compared it to Mile High in Denver, with the crowd shouting "incomplete" through the final quarter. That was the home crowd, of course, aimed at Wang. He rode that energy anyway, especially in the final five minutes. Dennis Tasic's 33-yard field goal put Vienna 31-26 up with 8:27 to play. The answer was Bartosz Woch from a yard out with 1:11 left, then Wang to Dylan St. Pierre for two points and 34-31. Wang finished 28 of 46 for 294 yards and four touchdowns.
However, the Panthers ran for 37 yards all game, while Vienna ran for more than 300 and had the ball for over 36 minutes. But the Vikings gave away 12 penalties for 125 yards to the Panthers' one, and Wrocław went three from three on fourth down (play by play). That is how you win a game you are losing on the stat sheet. Harley put it plainly afterwards: "we're the type of team that bend but don't break" (Panthers).
The result also settled the final four, with London and Rhein Fire (AFLE). It was Vienna's only defeat of the season, and they had the last word, beating the Panthers 68-5 in the Gold Bowl in Duisburg on 6 September.
That doesn't spoil this one for me. For one evening in August, Wrocław beat a side their head coach Dave Likins later said had "the best roster of any team I have ever seen in Europe" (Panthers).