ALL eyes will be on the climactic final day of the Croatian Football League (HNL) season this weekend. The leading trio – favourites NK Rijeka, reigning champions Dinamo Zagreb, and rank outsiders Hajduk Split – all have a chance to secure the champion’s title.
With four of the round’s five matches to be televised live on four different television stations, one can be assured that a large majority of Croatia’s 3.9 million inhabitants will be watching. They will either be glued to their TV sets or attending the matches in person.
The interest in the pulsating final round of the HNL will not be confined purely to within the boundaries of the Republic of Croatia.
For the football mad Croatian diaspora around the world, especially Down Under in Australia, many will be getting up in the middle of the night. They will cheer their respective teams and turn up ’bleary eyed’ to work (or school) the following morning.
In the Australian Croatian community – as is the case in Croatia, proper – allegiances will be generally split. Some are in the blue corner (Dinamo Zagreb) while others support the ‘Southerners’ (Hajduk Split) in the white corner. The tension during this final HNL season match is something to behold.
No Brainer – NK Rijeka to Win!
However, occasionally you find someone unique who doesn’t fit the stereotype.
Dean Fak was an accomplished footballer who played in the old NSL with the Morwell Falcons. He has played at many Victorian teams in the old Victorian Premier League, the elite state based competition prior to the current NPL model.
Fak, who started playing junior soccer for Essendon Croatia way back in the 1970s, was only one year of age when he and his family arrived in Australia.
From his birthplace of Rijeka.
“I was born in Rijeka and came to Australia in the early 70’s,” recalls Fak. These days, he lives in the rural Gippsland town of Warragul, in south-east Victoria.
“Everyone on both sides of my family supports Rijeka. Quite simply, there was no other option but to support them,” he added, highlighting his lifelong connection to the HNL season.
According to Fak, it’s a no brainer. NK Rijeka will be crowned HNL champions for the first time since 2017.
“I believe Rijeka will win its second title this weekend. We’re playing home and opportunities like this seldom come. ” He predicted, as he uttered the familiar Armada supporters’ slogan, “Krepat ma ne molat!” (Die, but never give up!)
Dinamo to do a ‘Steven Bradbury’!
Steve Škornjak is a former long time member of the Croatian Soccer Association of Australia Board of Directors. He considers himself somewhat of a footballing pariah in his home town of Adelaide.
“Ah, they’re all bloody Hajduk supporters over here. There aren’t too many of us Dinamovci here in Adelaide. Compared to them,” he smirked with a cheeky grin.
Škornjak has been a supporter and member of Adelaide Croatia Raiders all his life. But when it comes to his allegiances in Croatia, blue blood undeniably courses through his veins.
“I predict Dinamo to complete a ‘Steven Bradbury’ by beating Varaždin. They will win the league after Rijeka falls against Slaven Belupo, who then finish fourth and potentially get the last spot in the European qualifiers,” explained the ‘modri’ fan who has been labeled a so called ‘doctor of football’. This kind of unexpected finale is what makes the HNL season exciting.
When it comes to having football-related discussions with his Hajduk friends – he uses that term loosely – Škornjak loves nothing more than to be provocative.
“Taking all the above into account, Hajduk’s game then – yet again – becomes irrelevant. Even if they do beat Šibenik easily, who are relegated and already destined for the drop,” he added.
‘Bili’ seeking Divine Intervention
As for the rank outsiders, Hajduk?
Richi Barbarić is a key member of the only organised and club endorsed Hajduk Split supporters’ club in Australia. The Društvo Prijatelja Hajduka (DPH) chapter in Perth eagerly follows every HNL season.
“Hajduk, when they are expected to win – like the last couple of seasons – don’t end up winning,” lamented the gentle giant. Nonetheless, he fires up when the ‘Masters from the Sea’ (Majstori s mora) are called into question.
“But now that almost everyone has written them off and given them no chance, maybe – just maybe, with a bit of luck – they will finally break the drought,” he said, with one eye cast towards the Heavens above.
“I’m sure the players will give everything they have got to beat Šibenik. Then we can just pray Varaždin and Belupo can play at their best. Hopefully, we can celebrate in the end. ”
Barbarić, along with the more than 100,000 paid up Hajduk members and hundreds of thousands more ‘Bili’ supporters worldwide, will collectively be hoping for some divine intervention. They await the wee hours of Monday morning during this HNL season.
To break a long standing title drought, that has lasted 20 long years….
