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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 31, 2007
Boonie has been just one of the people who have helped make the ‘tache famous.
And, kicking off tomorrow, is the month of Movember and it might just be that you start seeing some of your favourite Swans players sporting the upper lip growth in order to attract some overdue attention and to raise some money for an appropriate charity.
More on the Mo coming soon.
Posted in Asian Footy, Swans in the Community | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 26, 2007
Footy matches – 17 November, Hanoi: Vietnam Vs Thailand Vs Laos
HCMC – Sunday 18 November. Austrade’s Open Universities Day Volunteers needed to help out demonstrating some Aussie Rules to potential Vietnamese students going to Australia to study. Please email for more information.
Posted in Asian Footy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 18, 2007
Yesterday, Kevan Dacey who had been the Acting Austrade Commissioner (Saigon) for the previous 6 months, departed Vietnam for Australia for the last time in that position.
Kev first met the Swans when we participated in Austrade’s Australian Schools Open Day back in May. Since then, Kev has become a keen and loyal participant.
When we were raffling mega bottles of Jim Beam to raise money for our Asian Championships campaign, he was there buying tickets for himself and selling tickets to everyone else. When we asked him to draw one of the raffles, he drew his friend Kerrie. Kerrie had won the previous week and kindly donated the bottle back to the Club. Kev drew again and this time drew his own name – and ‘kindly donated the bottle back to the Club’! We didn’t ask Kev to draw any more competitions after that…
Kev spoke with his contacts at who agreed to sponsor a mouthguard for every Swans player at the Champs. The mouthguards are the best fitting and most comfortable you will ever find.
At the Champs, Kev was everything. Wearing a Brisbane Lions shirt, he ran the water for the Swans. When he tired of that, he pulled on a jumper and played for us against the Thailand Tigers. The following day, wearing a China Reds shirt at the Fines’ Session, he was unexpectedly fined for continually wearing shirts not approved by the Swans hierarchy.
When the Hong Kong Dragons toured to Saigon on 1 September 2007, Kev was there again; this time as goal umpire. In the last quarter, he decided he could offer the Swans more help at full forward rather than as goal umpire. Accordingly, he told the Swans full forward to swap jobs! (See Kev Dacey’s match report.)
Kevan Dacey, you have been a super star. Good luck for your return to Australia. The Vietnam Swans hope to see you again back in Vietnam some time soon – or at the next Asian Champs.
Posted in Farewell, sport, Swans in the Community, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 14, 2007
The Age, 13 October 2007
“WHEN Qantas flight 191 lands in Beijing on Monday night it will mark the start of a new phase in the Australia-China business relationship. On board are 1000 footballs, hundreds of pieces of football gear, a dozen businessmen, nine AFL rising stars, two sporting icons and one game plan: to kick goals for Melbourne.
“The 10-day mission is a small part of the “tipping point” needed for Melbourne and Victoria truly to reap sustainable long-term benefits from 25 years of building relationships with China.”
To read the rest of this article, click on the link to or, if they have removed it from the site, read the story in pdf format.
Posted in AFL, Asian Footy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 11, 2007
When the footy, supplied and signed by the , landed in Vietnam, Ms Trang posed with the bundle of joy in front of HCMC’s statue of Tran Hung Dao.
Tran Hung Dao is revered as a National Hero in Vietnam after repelling 3 major Mongol invasions, led by the formidable Kublai Khan, back in the 13th Century.
After the photo shoot, Ms Trang returned the footy whereupon it was quickly put on a plane and whisked to Hanoi for the Grand Final Party. Unfortunately, the Grand Final was a fizzer as Poor Port didn’t seem capable of repelling even one of the Cats’ invasions of their porous defence.
Never mind. The Vietnam Swans cranked up the auction for the footy. Bidding was intense going dollar for dollar. Eventually, Dave from Vamed Engineering (a Gold Sponsor of the day) came out in front with a USD500 bid and collected the footy.
After the game, Dave was invited to wear a Swans footy jumper for the traditional photo under the TV as the Premiership Cup is presented to the winning team. See Dave in the photo above proudly holding the Sydney Swans footy aloft.
For the record: Dave the Welshman is a rugby fan. He’s very much “still learning to love footy”.
Thank you very much to the Sydney Swans for supporting footy in Asia.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 10, 2007
The ABC Radio in Adelaide was doing some research 2 days before the Grand Final and stumbled across the Swans website. They emailed us and said they wanted to do an interview on Grand Final Eve.
The Swans gave the ABC a choice: here’s the phone number of a sensible spokesperson from the Swans – and here’s the phone number of someone who will polarise your audience; a Port Power supporter by the name of Wayne “Bubbles” Tinlin.
It was a no brainer for the radio station and so they brought Wayne’s World to the listeners of Adelaide (Mad-elaide for those in the know).
Without drawing breath, Bubbles described how Port would butcher the Cats as he nonchalently butchered the Queen’s language. He went on to talk about the previous night’s Grand Final Cyclo Parade in Hanoi and the Swans having played their first ever South East Asian Champs earlier in the year (Ed’s note, that would be “Asian Champs”).
With his celebrity status nicely enhanced, Wayne skipped off home to enter the world of sleep. The following day, our celebrity friend thought we were as interested as the ABC and gobbed off again about his Port Powderpuffs – until about the 30 second mark of the first quarter. Thankfully.
Nevertheless, at the business end of the game, the Team photo under the TV screen, Wayne was there. Full credit to him. In one of the more gutsy efforts of anyone associated with Port on that day, Wayne was still wearing his Port jumper and was still able to smile (or grimace) for the photo above.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 7, 2007
Those Red & White Angels, the Swanettes (also known as the Jim Beam Party Crew), made a welcome return to JASPAS in Hanoi last week for the Grand Final. Jim Beam, a Gold Sponsor for the day gave us 37 x 750ml bottles to distribute to the crowd.
And so, the Swanettes wandered through the crowd randomly asking people to name our Sponsors – whose names were written on the banners hung around the room. How easy was that??
Also, coming from JB’s sponsorship of the Swans for the Asian Champs, we gave away 2 x 4.5 mega litre bottles of JB as prizes for various competitions.
Jim Beam and the Swanettes were a definite hit and a real crowd teaser, ah, pleaser.
Meanwhile, training resumed in Saigon yesterday in preparation for the triple header on 17 November between Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. And, surprising a few, a box full of 375ml Jim Beams appeared and were duly distributed to those who had toured to Bangkok for the Champs. The half bottles were part of Jim Beam’s original sponsorship.
Gotta be very happy with that.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 6, 2007
Above are some photos of the Saigon Saints’ Grand Final Brunch last weekend at the Legend Hotel. It was sold out before tickets even went on sale which was a month before the Grand Final! 279 people attended the function.
The Cafe Latin was packed on both the ground floor and 1st floor with well over a 100 fans. Also reporting brisk trade on the big day were Sheridans and the No. 5 Bar.
In Hanoi, more than 160 people attended the Vietnam Swans Grand Final Party at JASPAS.
Not to be out shone, sleepy ol’ Hoi An also got in on the act. They had 100 people attend a cafe, that is yet to be identified, according to an email received by the blog.
Footy’s a hit in this country. And that’s why they’re all honkin’ their horns. Because they love it.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 3, 2007
News of the Vietnam Swans 2nd Annual Grand Final Cyclo Parade was so big that it actually made today’s Herald Sun newspaper – Australia’s biggest seller.
Ex Swan, Chris Canty (of fame) who has returned to Melbourne but still plugs the footy over here for us, broke the good news today.
Meanwhile, Micky J, our photogenic star in the photo said he had received separate news of his fame which had originally started with an email chain that went from the owners of the Melbourne Victory Soccer Club, to Vic Wide, to Boeing (in Seattle), to the Victorian CIB (must be Dodgy Mick!), to Box Hill Tafe (who do the teaching of KOTO staff in Hanoi) before landing in Mick’s email box.
The stream of good news continued for Mick when Chris mentioned that “the article is also up on the urinal wall of Fitzroy’s Napier Hotel (Melbourne) – and it don’t get much better than that!”
Click on the article to enlarge it. Also, click on In the Press to read more articles about the Vietnam Swans that have appeared in the Press.
The Grand Final Cyclo Parade was sponsored by Red Apron Wines, Tiger Beer and Le Pub.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 3, 2007
Rumours have been circulating since yesterday that Micky J will appear in today’s Herald Sun newspaper. Apparently, it will be a photo from the Swans 2nd Annual Grand Final Cyclo Parade which was held last week in Hanoi.
Rumour or fact? Our sources on the ground in Melbourne will let us know for sure.
Posted in Grand Final | 1 Comment »
Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 1, 2007
Click on the photo of the Grand Final Party below to enlarge.
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Posted by Vietnam Swans on October 1, 2007
Not withstanding the fact that it was a thrashing, it was awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome. More news later.
Posted in Grand Final | 1 Comment »