The 2009 CEFL season will start earlier than in previous years — and not only that, it will start with one of the highlighted games of the year, when the reigning champs from Austria arrive to Belgrade to meet the same team they beat in the final, the Vukovi. On a Sport Klub live televised game in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia, including delayed broadcast on other Sport Klub channels in Europe, this weekend represents a monumental kickoff of the 2009 CEFL season.

Playing their cards close to their chests as always, not much is known about the Gladiators as they prepare for a repeat championship. Defending the title is always a difficult task, and it will be even more so for the Gladiators, considering this is expected to be the most competitive year in CEFL history. It all starts in Belgrade, where they’ll play an opponent that, as always, made changes to the team — changes for the better, or so they hope.

“I think it’s going to be positives and negatives. Positives: play somebody that’s a strong team. What’s bad: I think the weather’s been bad for everybody. But at some point you have to play. Sometimes you can practice too much and people get hurt. Best thing for us is at some point you have to play the best team … The Gladiators have to be considered the best team in the league, because they won the CEFL, and not only that, they won the Division II in Austria last year as well”, says John Harper, the Vukovi’s coach on whether it’s a good or bad thing they’ll play the Gladiators so early.

The changes they made include adding running back, receiver and probably many other things, Brandon McDowell, last year of the Danube Dragons — he replaces William Blocker who was not able to return to the team. The Vukovi’s imports didn’t play as much last year, as they acted as coaches also, giving opportunities to other players, but that is expected to change. Though Harper didn’t say it, or even imply it, it is expected that they’ll try to ride both McDowell and the returning Jordan Green to become the first CEFL team with two championships.

“Brandon’s a very athletic player who played in AFL — great hands, very physical and very elusive. The reason I picked him was his mentality, he’s very serious, very professional. It’s important that he’s able to mix with the mentality of the Serbian league. Some guys have a problem with that coming to Europe, they think they’re superstars, and they don’t enjoy it as much.”

The game itself likely won’t mean much in the long run, as the season won’t end until October, and so many things can change. But it’s still an important game, for the Vukovi at least, as the loss in the final wasn’t something they particularly enjoyed, especially not after being undefeated in two of their previous matchups, and after they lost the Serbian title the same way just a few months earlier.

“Very simply, besides the penalties and turnovers, which was huge against the Gladiators, the fact that Jordan got hurt in tht 4th quarter. The penalties and turnovers were critical — that is just mental mistakes, and the same thing happened against the Wild Boars. And you have to give credit to the Gladiators.”

The game in Belgrade starts a little earlier than usual, at 12.30PM CET on Saturday, but at the pretty usual place for the Vukovi, on Ada Ciganlija.