With all the excitement of the Asian Champs and the unification of  an Australian Rules Footy team in Vietnam, the Swans Blog has unwittingly and regretfully got behind with what our Vietnamese cousins are getting up to back in Australia.

A quick check of their website reveals that they may have already finished the season. Up to 14 July – when we were in Bangkok for the Champs – the Elgar Park Dragons had won 7 from 12 with another two matches to go (click on the side thumbnail for full results).

The website doesn’t seem to mention the results of the last two games or the ladder and nor does it seem to mention wild celebrations.

Not normally a betting man, I’m tipping that that’s not a good sign for their last two matches or their finals hopes and dreams.

However, as the Vietnam Swans know only too well, setting up a team and a Club can be difficult. Notwithstanding all those initial difficulties, it seems like the Elgar Park Dragons have put up a genuinely stunning performance in their first year. The future would seem very bright for them.

Congratulations to the Dragons.

The Laos Elephants are threatening to tour Vietnam before the end of the year.

Yesterday, Marty Sharples, who put in such a cracking performance for the Swans in Bangkok during the recent Asian Champs, sent us an email with all the hot gos.

Marty says that the Elephants have been “talking a lot about organising a game and the obvious choice is with one of the Vietnamese mobs. As a very preliminary idea, if we were able to get about 15 blokes to Hanoi (or HCMC) around the end of November or beginning of December, what would be the likelihood of a match?”

Marty, the Swans are very surprised to learn that an Elephant can seemingly lurk deep within a Swan. Furthermore, the fact that you guys would then dare to challenge the supremacy of the Swans is simply unheard of.

But anyway, bring it on! Join us on the weekend when we play Thailand (17 November) or any other weekend you choose. It’ll be awwwwwwwwwesome.

Mr Rooster was able to get in contact with ex Swans player, Antti the Finn. Antti said that he would have been very keen to make it to Vienna for the CEAFL Premiership. Alas, he had already booked a “luxurious weekend next to Archipelago of Turku. Turku is the Paris of Finland… or the ass of Finland depending upon who you ask it from”, he added. 

Antti was looking forward to the trip where there “will be some serious vodka drinking, drunken wrestling and passing out to the forest… which is refreshing after busy winter spring”.

And next weekend should also be a beauty as fellow ex Swan, Mr Reinout “from the land of windmills and hash is coming”.

The Finns never sleep! See Antti’s email for more information.