Tragedy hits Victoria

Yesterday, the Blog ran a light hearted story about the Vietnam Swans “footy season heating up”. As part of the introduction, it referred to Melbourne’s and Victoria’s extreme temperatures expected that day. The day in Victoria was being anticipated prophetically as “our worst day in history”.

Channel 9's former newsreader, Brian Naylor, succumbs

Melbourne went on to record its hottest day ever with the mercury hitting 46.4 degrees. Combined with wind gusts of up to 100km/hr and the effect of years of drought, Victoria’s parched landscape exploded in a ball of fire. Already, 96 are confirmed dead – including Channel 9′s former news reader, Brian Naylor. The number of fatalities is  expected to climb.

According to The Age newspaper, “Victoria has witnessed this country’s greatest natural disaster. Worse than Black Friday. Worse than Ash Wednesday. That is the grim sum of a catstrophe that exceeds all others – and threatens to grow worse”.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has observed that, “Hell and its fury has visited the good people of Victoria… Many good people now lie dead. Many others lie injured. This is an apalling tragedy for Victoria but because of that, it’s an appalling tragedy for the nation”.

The Swans Blog pays tribute to the emergency and associated services for their extraordinary level of professionalism during this ongoing disaster. Thank you.

For those wishing to make a donation, please contact the Australian Red Cross’ Victorian Bush Fires 2009 Appeal.

Footy heats up

In the spiritual home of footy, Melbourne, things are really hotting up.

Across the state, blistering temperatures are predicted (for today), up to 46 degrees in the Mallee while Melbourne will reach 44.” With hot northerly winds gusting at up to 100km/h, it’s being described as “our worst day in history”.

On the other side of the country in Perth, the NAB Cup will kick off with Collingwood playing West Coast.

Back in Vietnam, today the Vietnam Swans start training in both Hanoi and Saigon. In Saigon, training will commence at 2.30pm at RMIT University. In Hanoi, training starts at midday at the UN International School.

Hanoi is reporting a strong surge in interest with 25 people confirmed for today’s training session. Toby is one of the new recruits. He is described by Dan Kindness as being “6ft 4 inches but plays like a 7ft madman. He has the ability to split the packs like a Hanoi bus in peak hour traffic”.

It’s a very hot start to what should be a seriously good 2009 season.

Will the Bali Geckos want the ball as much as the Swans on 28 March?

The Vietnam Swans have just announced that the Bali Geckos will tour Saigon from 26 March – 29 March 2009.

The footy match will be played on Saturday 28 March at RMIT. This will be the second time that the Vietnam Swans will use genuine AFL goal posts in Saigon (a very special thank you to our goal posts’ sponsor, Pest Free).

The only time we have played the Geckos was at the 2007 Asian Championships in Bangkok. We were leading strongly at half time but, alas, the Bali Geckos came home with a wet sail and took the points.

Will the Vietnam Swans be good enough to reverse this result on 28 March??

Footy’s back on in the ‘Gon.

Hanoi prepares for 2009

The Vietnam Swans in Hanoi have announced that training sessions will shift from the cool of Thursday evenings to the warmth of Saturday afternoons – commencing at midday, Saturday 7 February 2009.

The training venue will shift from Dead Cat Stadium to the UN International School (UNIS). The Vietnam Swans thank UNIS very much for making their excellent facilities available to us.

Last year, Willy and Potsy introduced Auskick to the Hanoi International School on Friday afternoons. On Saturday, 21 February, Willy and Potsy will add UNIS to the Auskick program. They will carry on from the great work done earlier by Swannies, Kainey, Taber and  Baird.

Special thanks to the AFL which has provided a number of Auskick packs for the program.

Also, congratulations to Willy who has been elected as Coach in the north.

Willy is keen to involve as many people as possible with the Auskick and the footy training sessions. If you would like to help Willy, please contact him. He will very much appreciate your support.