Vietnam Swans

Australian Rules Football In Vietnam!

Archive for the ‘Asian Champs’ Category

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“Swans Tank”, says Liberatore

Posted by Vietnam Swans on March 23, 2008

Tony Liberatore covers himself in controversy again with a “Swans tank” claimFormer Carlton Assistant Coach, Tony Liberatore has accused the Vietnam Swans of “tanking” matches at the end of last season.

Speaking on the Footy Show last week, Liberatore cited the fact that the Vietnam Swans “lost their last four matches of the season” (sic) (Editor’s note: clearly, the fact that Libber’s brain is tanking would be less evident if his lips stopped flapping. The Swans won our second last match of the year against the Lao Elephants). 

In a wide ranging interview, Libber accuses Coach Stacey of standing over Swans player, Mattie Greenwood, “demonstrating how to feign a medial ligament injury”.

The latest Libber outburst follows his comments last month that Swans President, Phil Johns is “a divisive figure who should be sacked and that Swans’ Captain, Gus McEwin should also get his marching orders if he could not guide the club to the finals at the 2008 Asian Champs”.

The Swans have obviously “issued a statement emphatically denying the claims and said they would hold a press conference about the issue on a Friday in 2020″.

To read the full story, see Micky J’s article, Tanking claims not confined to the mainland.

Posted in Asian Champs, Unheard of | Leave a Comment »

Pago’s word on the Jumper

Posted by Vietnam Swans on February 5, 2008

Pago reflects on the new footy jumper with the support of Club sponsors, Jim Beam and Tiger BeerThe Swans Blog has received an email from the President of the Saigon Geckos’ Rugby Club regarding the proposal for a new footy jumper. Pago, who is an original member of the Saigon Saints, has been instrumental in resurrecting Aussie Rules in Saigon by offering the resources and players from the Geckos as well as some well received advice. Pago also toured to Bangkok for the Vietnam Swans’ inaugural assault on the Asian Champs last year where his on-field performance was solid and his off-field session as “Fines Master” was exemplary!  

As the last surviving playing member of the Saigon Saints, can I please have some input when you guys decide the jersey.

The Saints formed in 1999 and at last count there are still 12 ex players residing in Saigon (who unfortunately, “are too old now to play”). I am sure that the club will get more support if it tries to keep some part of the history of Aussie Rules in Saigon alive, rather than just changing to something completely different.

I believe we have tracked down some of the old (St Kilda) jerseys too, and have enough for a team.

I propose that whatever design is decided that we try to incorporate the red, white and black. Not necessarily in equal proportions like St Kilda but however fits best. I also propose that on the neck of the jersey we have SSFC as other merged clubs do such as Sydney/South Melbourne (SMFC), Brisbane/Fitzroy BBFLFC), etc.

Footnote:

Pago added in a subsequent email, “All good for Hanoi to stay as the Swans, Saigon the Saints and then a combined Vietnam jersey.” He also said he has a photograph of the original Saigon Saints team which will be forwarded through shortly to the Blog. 

Posted in 4. Asian Footy, Asian Champs, Vietnam | 1 Comment »

Swans Blog smashes through 20,000 hits

Posted by Vietnam Swans on February 3, 2008

The Blog’s StatsLast week, the Swans Blog smashed through its 20,000th hit. Since then, we’ve recorded another 700 hits.

In what has been a bumper month for the Swans Blog, January had 3,279 hits which is a world record. Our previous best month was July last year when we had 3,271. What’s weird about that is that July was the month of the Asian Championships. January, by contrast, was the month of not very much!

In the last 20 days, 12 days have had more than 100 hits. If you include days that had more than 90 hits, the number goes up to 17. Seriously unheard of.

The Swans Blog has attracted an international audience. Staggeringly, the United States accounts for 28 per cent of our traffic; Australia has 22 per cent and Vietnam comes in at No. 3 with 19 per cent of the hits. Often, the Blog is difficult to access in Vietnam. Many times we can’t access it during the day at all which may explain why Vietnam doesn’t come in at No. 1.

If you have your own theory to explain these results, post a comment.

Posted in Asian Champs, Sponsors, Swans in the Community, Unheard of | Leave a Comment »

Singapore Wombats to tour Vietnam

Posted by Vietnam Swans on January 12, 2008

The Singapore WombatsFollowing a meeting between the Presidents of the Vietnam Swans and Singapore Wombats in the Members’ Pavilion of the MCG on the 2nd day of the Boxing Day Test Match, Singapore will tour to Hanoi in 2008.

The proposed tour is likely to occur in late July which will be ideal preparation for the Asian Champs to be hosted in Singapore. The date for the Champs is still to be confirmed but it is expected to be held at the end of August after the Beijing Olympics.

Above is a photo of the Singapore Wombats. As you can see, their jumper is almost identical to the Vietnam Swans. The similarity of the two jumpers has been described by some Swans as ”untenable”. Given the Swans are the relatively new entrants on the Asian circuit, we are the ones who need the ”new look”.

Posted in Asian Champs, 4. Asian Footy | Leave a Comment »

The Swans review 2007

Posted by Vietnam Swans on December 31, 2007

The 2007 sun sets on an impressive year for the Swans2007 was a big year for the Swannies. Below are some of the highlights: 

  • - It was the year that Hanoi and Saigon combined to form a national team, the Vietnam Swans.
  • - The Vietnam Swans then made our inaugural appearance at the Asian Championships in Bangkok in July.
  • - Players and officials for our first Asian Champs came from no fewer than 6 countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Singapore and Australia) to make it happen.
  • Triple Brownlow Medalist, Bobby Skilton; Triple Premiership Player, Clarke Keating; and member of the SouthMelbourne/Sydney Swans’ Team of the Century, Tony Morwood, individually wrote to the Vietnam Swans in the lead up to the Champs to wish us luck.
  • We commenced a relationship with Sponsor, Jim Beam where they actively used the Swans appearance at the Champs to market their product – ie, they sought genuine business value from the sponsorship (eg Jim Beam promotional posters  that incorporated into the design the Swans appearance at the Champs.)
  • In the lead up to the Champs, we launched the Vietnam Swans Blog which has since had more than 17,000 hits.
  • The guys from Laos who played with us at the Champs – have since gone on to form their own Club, the Laos Elephants.
  • We hosted a Tri Nations Tournament in Hanoi with Laos and Thailand that was combined with the netball. Approximately 200 people attended the after match function.
  • We hosted a match in Saigon against Asian Champs Premiers’ the Hong Kong Dragons.
  • We hosted a derby between Hanoi and Saigon in Saigon.
  • We formed part of Austrade’s Australian Schools Open Day in both Saigon and Hanoi where we used footy to help differentiate the Australian education product. Club Sponsor, QBE Insurance, sponsored 900 Swans hats that were given away to attendees in the two cities.
  • The Vietnam Swans received very generous support from sponsors for their third Grand Final Party in Hanoi and close to 200 people attended.
  • In the lead up to the Grand Final, Vietnam Swans stalwart, Wayne Tinlin, was interviewed by ABC Radio in Australia.
  • The Vietnam Swans ran the 2nd Grand Final Cyclo Parade in Hanoi on the Thursday prior to the Grand Final. A photograph subsequently appeared in Melbourne’s Herald Sun Newspaper and ABC Radio in Adelaide did a live interview with Wayne Bubbles Tinlin.
  • Club NewsThe Swans continued to give back to the community by raising money for an organisation dealing with prostate cancer in Hanoi and also for the Loreto Foundation in Saigon which deals with disadvantaged children. On both occasions we raffled off Jim Beam bottles which were part of the original sponsorship from the Asian Champs.
  • The Swans also gave sporting equipment to the orphanage in Hanoi that we have been associated with.
  • The Swans held our 3rd Annual Golf Day in Melbourne on 29 December.

 In many respects, 2007 has been a remarkable year for the Vietnam Swans. Congratulations to all involved – especially those involved with the Asian Champs. 

We are now extremely well positioned to have a very strong 2008. For a sneak preview of 2008, tune in to the blog tomorrow – the 1st Day of the New Year.

Posted in 4. Asian Footy, Asian Champs, Sponsors, Swans in the Community, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »

Singapore to host 2008 Asian Champs

Posted by Vietnam Swans on November 23, 2007

The Swans Blog has just learnt that Singapore will host the 2008 Asian Champs. They expect the event will be held in mid August 2008.

Posted in Asian Champs | 2 Comments »

Who will host the 2008 Asian Champs??

Posted by Vietnam Swans on September 11, 2007

Asian Champs - where will they be hosted next year?The airwaves are abuzz again with talk about hosting the 2008 Asian Champs. Where should it go? Who has the facilities? Who has two decent-sized ovals next to each other? Who has a location that is relatively cheap to fly to and is relatively inexpensive?

Tigers’ President, RhinoYesterday, the Thailand Tiger’s President, Rhino offered Bangkok again as a venue for consideration as currently, no other venue has been locked in. If it is held in Bangkok, it would have to be held on 16 August (already, that is the only available date to book the Patana Grounds).

It must be said that the Tigers did an absolutley outstanding job this year.

In an earlier email, the Philippines believe that the Champs should be moved around the region “to showcase the game to the local community”. This is particularly important to the Philippines whose “main goal is to develop a proper league comprising of juniors and schools and just to be able to show every 5 to 10 years a major Aussie Rules event would no doubt be a massive help to any team”. Another option would be to formailise an Asian League with a North and a South Division; the top 3 of each division play off in Bangkok.

The Bali Geckos favour a permanent home which would also help raise sponsorship.

The Bintangs prefer a rotating system. It is a revenue generator for the host team. They can attract extra sponsors and give existing sponsors additional exposure. It’s also an opportunity to showcase footy to the locals which in turn, becomes a showcase to the AFL.

Singapore has said that they have two suitable ovals and they would be “more than happy” to host. Having said that, Bangkok is an exceptional venue with it being extremely accessible for all teams. However, it’s unfair to expect the Tigers to carry teh full burden of organisation each year. Perhaps a professional events management company could play a major role?

Well, that’s a snippet from around the region about where the Champs should be hosted next year.

What do you think? Post a comment. 

Posted in Asian Champs | Leave a Comment »

Swans Blog on fire at 7,000 degrees

Posted by Vietnam Swans on August 18, 2007

The Swans Blog is on fire using its 200th posting to announce its 7,000th hitYesterday the Swans Blog had 114 visitors which took us up to 7,000 hits. Today’s posting is the 200th.

Surely, in some culture it must be lucky to announce 7,000 on your 200th? If there is, the Swans will give them an honourary membership.

In other statistics, it’s just 3 days more than 100 since we launched the Blog on 7 May with the story, “2 months and 10 days before Asian Champs”. Speaking of 10 days, it took just that many after the Champs for the Blog to record our 5,000th hit on 24 July. Coincidentally, 24 was the number of days it took us to collect the 2,000 hits needed to reach 7,000.

Conspiracy theorists momentarily suggested something more sinister than the above being just a random collection of unrelated coincidences. The Swans Blog considered their suggestions to be nothing more than malicious gossip – so we burnt them at the stake.

But back to the Blog’s stats: Vietnam accounts for 43.15% of the traffic (compared with 46.5% at 5,000 hits), Australia 30.85% (30.2%) and the US 6.83% (6.5%). The total number of countries that have logged on to the site has increased from 48 to 58 countries.

In other Swans Blog related news, Marty Hartigan, who lives in Melbourne, will be in Hanoi on the day of the AFL Grand Final. He got onto the net, found the Blog and emailed us requesting a couple of seats at the Vietnam Swans 2007 AFL Grand Final Party. For sure, Marty!!

Marty also mentioned that The Age ran an article a couple of weeks ago that included a reference to the Vietnam Swans.

It’s official: you don’t have to wait ’til the end of the day to discover that it’s all good. Hearin’ me?

At the end of the day, it’s all good

Posted in 2007 AFL Grand Final Party, Asian Champs, Sponsors | Leave a Comment »

Match Report: Vietnam Vs Thailand Tigers

Posted by Vietnam Swans on August 14, 2007

The Bossink! Kempey’s Mating Dance. Grigg goes goalward.One month to the day since the Asian Champs, we can now bring you the Match Report on the 4th and final match of our campaign; Vietnam Vs the Thailand Tigers. Special thanks to our Assistant Coach, Micky Johnston for the insights.

 

A final chance to gain some glory against our old foes, the Thaigers…

 

Everyone was knackered, but no one wanted to go home yet.

 

Hard work from Scott Beasley and Andy Wall (kept his head down and got a whack across the noggin for his troubles – our first blood rule candidate) in the back line saw the ball pushed forward for Kempie to dob one with a quick left foot snap. A second one to Will floating down from the half-back line and letting loose from the 50-metre mark saw us go in ahead at half time by a goal.

 

The effort in the sun all day meant there were 32 tired bodies on the ground for their 8th half of footy for the day, but of course they wanted more.  So much so, that Griggie and his mate with the cap decided to see if the game could be settled in the Sin Bin!

 

Johnny Fosters in the ruck continued to give bottom feeders like Greg Eggins first opportunity at centre bounces, but it was the Tigers who got the first goal for the half. Mixo Kris did some nice work across the full back line to work the ball around the flank, and Will crashed hard into the back of his opponent to make sure he earned the ball, but the Thaigers continued to push forward and scored a late goal to win a tough encounter.

 

Final Score: Vietnam 2.3 (15) – Thailand 4.3 (27)  

 

PS Bottom right photo – How’s Scotty Stacey’s impersonation of a Nazi playing footy?

Micky J Superstar; What Kevan Dacey looks like when he’s not wearing a Vhina Reds shirt or Brisbane Lions shirt; The Little Guy with a big kick

Posted in Asian Champs, Australian Rules Football | Leave a Comment »

Match Report: Vietnam Vs China Reds

Posted by Vietnam Swans on August 13, 2007

Special thanks to Assistant Coach, Micky Johnston for the following match report from the Asian Champs.

 

Game 1:  Vietnam Swans Vs China Reds – Everyone arrived at the bus pick-up:  Good start.

 

Scotty said, “For the next 8 hours, what I say goes”. No one quibbled – looking good.

Ground arrival.  Lots of other buses, so obviously at right place.

The Batik Jakarta BintangsOther teams in corporate uniform (especially liked the batik outfit from Indonesia), but we’d sold lots of t-shirts and caps on the bus to up our image.

10 minutes of “G’day, my names McGooly, what’s yours?”, followed by Scotty reading out his first team as the coach of the bestest mob in the world.  Then, it was GAME ON!

Dominating Drew in the ruckAt first bounce, we knew we’d discovered a centre combo that could work together – bliss! Drew Franklin, Sam Grigg, Mick Hassett and Peter Bossink combined together (as they did tirelessly all day) to get the ball into our forward line for the first point of the entire Asian Cup 2007 to David Kemp.

Unfortunately, our scoring opportunities were very limited over the next 19.5 minutes, but there were some highlights, not least of which was Travis’ tussle against big Greg Stafford.  Twice, T was able to outmuscle the big S and deliver the ball in the Brothers Sharpleseseses’ direction. The first time, Sharples Marty was closest and almost bagged one, but alas, another point.

From then on, we struggled to keep up with the team chosen from the first country in the world to reach a population of 1 billion.

Captain Gus & Mixo Kris combined with Will across the half back line to keep the Red’s forwards honest, and the bastard son of A. Downer, M. Growder, got his hands on the ball a couple of times across the half forward line, but kicking goals was proving a challenge.

The rain came tumbling downWhen the skies opened up 5 minutes into the first half, Scotty managed to keep his coaching notes from smudging, but was unable to gain heavenly intervention on the ground.

Final score did not reflect the close nature of the game, but they knew how to kick sausage rolls and we could only muster behinds.

Final Score: China Reds 4.2 (26) –  Vietnam 0.3 (3)

Posted in Asian Champs, Australian Rules Football | Leave a Comment »

Former President escapes fine

Posted by Vietnam Swans on August 12, 2007

Former Swans President Kainey points out that he does the wrong thingFormer Swans President, Dave “Flyer” Kainey, often points out what’s good and what’s not in Asian football.

It’s since been pointed out that the Flyer was the Bintang’s runner during the recent Champs - for which he miraculously escaped the wrath of the Fines Master, Pago. This has raised eyebrows and questions in some circles with whispers of favouritism. 

Dacey - fined for wearing a Brisbane Lions T shirtKevan Dacey, by contrast was belted by the Fines Master for wearing a Brisbane Lions t shirt on match day and then a China Reds shirt during the fines session (what was Kev thinking there??).

While people are able to understand the Kevan Dacey situation, the same cannot be said for Dave Kainey.

Perhaps it’s time for the Fine Master to explain. When two people commit the same offence but only one is fined a double shot of Thai whiskey, you have a double standard. Plain n simple.

Posted in Asian Champs | 2 Comments »

The rumble of the Elephants is getting louder…

Posted by Vietnam Swans on August 12, 2007

The rumble is getting louder…If you thought those Elephants would have quietly returned to Laos, never to be seen again, think again. The rumble from the jungles of Laos is turning into thunder.

The boys have just received a burst of publicity from World Footy News. Marty Sharples says that the Elephants are attracting 10-15 regular trainers and they train twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays. Numbers have become so prolific that they have had to take the “unprecedented step of using two footies at training”.

The guys training come from Laos, Australia, UK, Japan and Norway (I wonder if the Rooster has played for Norway). 

Dan “Sausage Roll” Woodley, from Laos, in his elephant sized rugby shortsAfter training sessions, Marty says they drink Beer Lao (maybe not unprecedented) and “talk of greatness and awesomeness”. In the next breath he mentions , “We hope to take on a Vietnamese side either in Hanoi or Saigon at year’s end or early next year”.

We look forward to warmly meeting the Elephants anywhere, anytime. 

For the full article, click onto World Footy News.

Posted in Asian Champs, Australian Rules Football | Leave a Comment »

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