Vietnam Swan, David Hadley reports on last Saturday’s Indochina Cup in Bangkok between Vietnam, Thailand and Lao.

The Vietnam Swans travelled to Thailand last weekend to partake in the 3rd Annual Indochina Cup alongside the Lao Elephants and the Thailand Tigers. Coming along for the adventure were two Vietnam Shooters netball teams. This made for a very simple formula. One football team + two netball teams + Bangkok = Long, messy weekend. If you add in the Fine master and fine mistress, Dale Weightman and colourful characters like “Jukebox”, this equation becomes a given.

Enough with the maths lesson and over to the football. First up was Vietnam vs Lao. Vietnam did not take the recent loss to Lao in the Asian Champs lightly. In fact the Swans were full of spite and rage. Have you ever seen a flock of Swans charge at a herd of elephants? Unlikely. But imagine it was possible. The Vietnam Swans came out strong. With the best centrelines assembled this year, the ball was quick to enter the forward line repeatedly. The centreline of JD, Monkey, Dukes and Heath seemed to have a special connection. It’s like they work at the same International School and see each other every day (Ed’s note: Unbelievable but true!). That’s as improbable as a flock of Swans charging a herd of elephants though.

Danny Armstrong became a focal point at Full Forward and kicked many goals. Gus was making a point at centre half forward, the main one being he wants to play there more often. Whilst he played very well, no one wants to see Gus happy, so he will be back in the backline next season. The whole team jelled and we won quite convincingly. There was no ‘i’ in Vetnam Swans that game, only great teamwork.

The second game was against the much fancied Thailand Tigers. Earlier in the year we faced each other for the ANZAC Day game in Kanchanaburi and the scoreboard was not something that was talked about afterwards. Knowing this, the Tigers gave us ex AFL player, Dale Weightman for 5 minutes in the first half. The ‘flea’ played 275 games for the Richmond Tigers, won a premiership and was state captain of Victoria for 2 years in the State Of Origin. Little did he know how difficult Asian Football is – although he did a goal assist for Dukes, a Flea devotee, which fulfilled a childhood dream of his.

The Swans started strongly, matching the Tigers goal for goal. The Vietnam Shooters had just won their Cup and came over to the footy oval for added support. After fighting hard and valiantly, the Swans went down 52-21. A few straighter kicks would have given the Swans the fluff in their feathers to come home strongly. We won a few hearts over that afternoon and a lot of respect for ourselves.

Fabbo made his 14th long, moving speech of the year after the game. This was a special day for Fabbo, he reached his 50th long, moving speech for his career. Congrats Fabbo. Monkey celebrated second best player of the tournament, gaining a lot of possessions once Kelsey came along to watch.

After an eventful ride home back to Bangkok, the celebrations began with the Shooters showing the footballers a thing or two about partying. All the teams got together for a charity auction in Bangkok with the ‘flea’ being auctioneer. The stories from that night will be told for years to come, but you are getting none out of me. Remember kiddies, “What happens on the football/netball trip, stays on the football/netball trip.”

The Vietnam Swans got up at 11am on Sunday morning for the Matty ‘FineMaster Flash’ Townsend show. After two hours of fines, the only thing ending the show was the need to get to the airport.

And so, while that ends the season for the Vietnam Swans in terms of matches, there’s still lots more to come in 2009:

• 12 December, End of Season BBQ, Saigon
• 28 December, Test Cricket, MCG, Melbourne
• 29 December, the 5th Annual Vietnam Swans Golf Day, Melbourne.

Contact vietnamswans@gmail.com for further information and to register your interest in attending.

PS Photos hopefully coming very soon of the Indochina Cup.