For Information, email the Vietnam Swans' National President, Phil Johns.
Vietnam Swans' 2012 National Sponsors
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 28, 2007
Marty Sharples’ life in Laos is on fire with his mates as they train for the Champs. We’ve just received this piece of enthusiastic news from Marty and the boys:
Geez it’s exciting. The Vientiane chapter had a kick around last night, and decided to form a club here following the Champs.The Lao Elephants – fat, slow, and almost extinct.
Posted in Asian Champs, Aussie Rules, sport | 1 Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 27, 2007
In terms of giving the people what they want – footy – the 2007 Big Day Out in Hanoi was a great success. It started at 2pm and didn’t stop until after dark. That’s a lot of Vietnamese and foreigner handballs.
With the ANZ Bank Handball Board, a continuous stream of children and adults queued up to try their form. Many were super skilled and, who knows, one day may end up playing for the Vietnam Swans – surely a dream of every self-respecting child in Vietnam.
Inevitably, however, there were others who were less gifted and were therefore challenged by the unusual bounce and strange handball action. Fortunately, there are other codes out there that use nice, round balls with a predictable bounce!
But they all loved the footy and were doggedly determined to achieve success. Each time one of the punters handballed a goal through the hole in the board, the crowd cheered its support. Sometimes the adults unleashed handballs that would have travelled for 35m if it wasn’t for the board interrupting the flight.
The Swans were able to give away the distinctive “goal-striped” QBE Vietnam Swans hats as well as posters from the Sydney Swans. Sydney had sent us posters of their 2005 Premiership team and 2006 Team that were originally intended for last week’s Australian Schools Open Day – but unfortunately they didn’t arrive until 4 days after the Open Day. Sometimes 4 weeks just isn’t enough to get something from Australia to Vietnam! Never mind, the Open Day’s loss was the Big Day Out’s gain judging by the size of the grins. Surprisingly, some of the ladies commented that the Sydney players were even more “dep trai” (“han-some”) than the Vietnam Swans players. Really unheard of!
At 6pm, we packed up and let the kids kick the 4 footies around on the volley ball court. They absolutely loved it – especially the three who went home with a footy each under their jumpers (we can only hope that they use their ill-gotten footies for goodness & niceness and recruit more people to the cause!).
Meanwhile, the Big Day Out continued long into the night with Bands, food and drinks. Clearly, the highlight of the evening was when the MC unexpectedly gave the Vietnam Swans a plug to the crowd and wished us well in the Champs. Awwwwwwwesome.
Photos by Adam Hurley
Posted in AFL, sport, Swans in the Community, Vietnam | 1 Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 27, 2007
The Organising Commitee for the 2007 Asian Champs has just released the proposed match schedule.
The Vietnam Swans are in Group B and are scheduled to play China, Thailand, Bali and Japan – before we play off in the Grand Final.
The Hanoi Swans have played Thailand twice but were unlucky on both occasions.
We have not played the other teams. Given Bali’s team name is the “Geckos”, we’re hoping our Saigon friends who play rugby with the Saigon Geckos don’t get too confused.
For full details of the schedule, click on the following link:proposed-match-schedule.pdf
Posted in AFL, Asian Champs, sport | 1 Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 27, 2007
Saturday, 26 May 2007 – SIN Vs MALAYSIA.
Under the watchful eyes of former Pres, Dave “Flyer” Kainey and former Captain Coach, JD, the Singapore Wombats beat the Malaysian Warriors at home by 4 goals.
Posted in Asian Champs, sport | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 24, 2007
It’s not unusual for stunners to stalk stars of the Swans. After all, we’re elite athletes and they’re only human. Last weekend, Austrade’s Australian Schools Open Day in HCMC was no exception. Seizing a photo opportunity, the Vietnam Swans presented each of these “Swanettes” with a QBE Vietnam Swans hat in memory of the occasion. When asked if they would like their special hats personally autographed, they told us, “Don’t worry about it”!
Posted in AFL, Aussie Rules, photography, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 24, 2007
What an incredible football show the Mighty Micky J put on at the 2006 Big Day Out in Hanoi. According to those who saw him and his team mates, it was “Amazing!”. High praise indeed.
If you would like to informally rub shoulders with Mick and the boys and learn a few things about footy, come along and see us at 4 pm on Saturday, 26 May. For all the specific details of when & where, just have a squiz at Auscham’s big-day-out-2007-flyer.pdf – and we’ll see you there.
And, as an additional incentive, we will give away 35 QBE Vietnam Swans hats as well as a heap of colour team posters of the AFL Sydney Swans!
Ladies and Gentlemen, your Big Day Out has just become a Massive Day Out.
Posted in AFL, Aussie Rules, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 23, 2007
Special thanks to Captain Touch, the Big Texan, Mighty Matt Otto for this report -
The Hanoi Swans Touch Team entered the 3rd Annual Dragons Touch Tournament last weekend and performed fabulously - but just missed out capturing the Cup in a nail biting Final against Al Fresco’s.
Losing to Al Frescos in the first match of pool play, the Swans regrouped to beat UNIS Touch in a 4-3 victory to move into the knock-out comp. The first semi-final game was against defending Champs, Jafa. A tight first half was followed by a thumping as Jafa ran out of steam against the deep bench of the Swans in a 6-1 defeat.
The Swans then took on Al Fresco’s again for the Final and jumped to an early lead, only to see that tied at the end of the game due to some big plays from their star back Alec, the fastest guy on the pitch. A sudden death, drop off- play off ensued whereby each minute, both teams lost a player.
The Swans almost had the Cup sealed until the whistle blew back the clever scoring combo of Vinay and Mick Growder for a forward pass! After that, we were down to 3 players each and it was only a matter of time before young Alec broke around the end to score and win it for Al Frescos.
Your fabulous Swans this year in the photo above were from Left to Right:
Vinay Greenwood, Matt Otto, David, Mic Growder, Tung, Vuong, Sue Woodbury, Sue McKeag, Liz, Van, Christine
Many thanks for your efforts out there and well done for keeping the Swans in the title match 3 years in a row now.
Special thanks also to MJ and DT for the jumpers and support on the day with the new Swans QBE Hats!!
Posted in photography, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 22, 2007
Today, the Swans announced that their 30th player/official had signed up for the Club’s inaugural appearance at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on 14 July.
Who was Mr 30? None other than Club Legend (he supplied us with Pepperoni Pizzas during the original viewings of Friday Night Football), Mick Francis, the Pied Piper of Hanoi.
When presented with a bouquet of flowers, in Vietnam soccer match style, to celebrate the 30 signatures milestone, Mike was shy and retiring.
But when the ball bounces in the Champs, there’ll be nothing shy and retiring about this giant of a man. Oooooh, does he love a bit of pig skin!
Posted in AFL, photography, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 21, 2007
Saturday, 19 May, 2007 – Hong Kong Dragons just “snuck over” the line against Jakarta Bintangs (who have been on the mega regional tour).
Saturday, 12 May, 2007 - Jakarta Bintangs beat Tokyo Goannas but lost to the China Reds in a double header over in Shanghai.
Malaysian Warriors played Hong Kong Dragons and won 11.10.76 to 4.5.29
Posted in AFL, Aussie Rules, sport | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 20, 2007
Hanoi’s famous One Pillar Pagoda has waited 1,000 years to see a decent hat. Although there was stony silence at the timber pagoda, it is believed that the efforts of DT’s (Daryl Taber’s) mate, Bill, were appreciated.
Posted in AFL, fashion, photography, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 19, 2007
The Official 2007 Asian Champs logo has been unveiled. In case you missed all the action in the electronic and print media, it has been kindly reproduced below.
Posted in AFL, Aussie Rules, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on May 11, 2007
Dear Supporters, Friends, Players n Trainers of the Vietnam Swans!
It is my great pleasure to announce that QBE Insurance has very generously agreed to sponsor 900 “Vietnam Swans” hats. That’s right, it’s not a Hanoi Swans hat; it’s a Vietnam Swans hat. A copy of the mock-up hat is attached.
You may be wondering why, all of a sudden, we need 900 hats. We need the hats because on 19 May in Hanoi and 20 May in HCMC, Austrade will host Australian Schools Open Days (see attached). Hanoi will attract 700 visitors and HCMC 1,000 visitors. Austrade has invited the Hanoi Swans and Saigon Aussie Rules Footy Club to take up a small stall on each day and use Australia’s Signature Sport to promote some Australian social/sporting culture.
Thanks to QBE Insurance, we can now give most of the visitors to the Open Day a free eye-catching Vietnam Swans hat which, when they wear it in Australia, will shock more than a few Aussies (“What? They play footy in Vietnam?? That’s unheard of!”).Further, the Sydney Swans have agreed to give us some promotional material to distribute on the 2 days. So, any Vietnamese student traveling to Australia will probably now have the Sydney Swans as their preferred AFL team. Importantly, when those students return to Vietnam, they will be more likely to develop a relationship with our (now) two footy clubs in Vietnam.
QBE Insurance and the Sydney Swans have a fabulous relationship. The Sydney Swans have been in Sydney for 25 years. QBE Insurance has been a sponsor of the Sydney Swans for 20 years. Over here in Vietnam, QBE Insurance was a Platinum Sponsor of the Hanoi Swans’ 2006 AFL Grand Final Party. Now, they are a sponsor of 900 Vietnam Swans hats. QBE Insurance’s generosity is acknowledged and appreciated.Given Vietnam will be fielding a combined team at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on 14 July 2007, the Hanoi Swans have ordered an additional 100 “Vietnam Swans” type hats which will be available for sale to people touring to Bangkok – and anyone else who wants to get on board a good thing! Thank you very much again to QBE Insurance and the Sydney Swans.
Further Information:
QBE Insurance Group is Australia’s largest international general insurance & reinsurance group, and one of the top 25 insurers and re-insurers worldwide:
For more details: www.qbe.com
The Sydney Swans website can be found at www.sydneyswans.com.au
Phil Johns (Email for details)
President Hanoi Swans (and Saigon Facilitator)
Posted in AFL, Aussie Rules, sport, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
