Skipper Dukes tells us what happened in Game 3 against the Barbarians
Captain Luke “Dukes” Creamer prepares the match report for Game 3 of the Asian Champs between the Vietnam Swans and Barbarians.
The Crossroads
After dropping our first two games of the Champs against highly fancied opponents, the mighty Swannies were at what you could call… the crossroads. From here our tournament could have been a winless disaster or a glorious ground breaking success. The choice was ours.
Prior to this match, both the Swannies and the Barbarians hadn’t done much to trouble the scorers but both teams had shown glimpses of their true abilities.
The game didn’t start well for the Swannies as the Barbarians moved the ball quickly forward and scored a goal promptly. However, this was all the Swannies needed to get their proverbial rumps into gear and avert the aforementioned winless disaster.
This was the turning point of the Swannies Asian Champs campaign and, although it didn’t come easy, from here on, the Swannies fired up and pushed for their first ever Asian champs victory. As in all great victories there were no standouts but inch-by-inch the Swannies started to get on top.
Key reasons for the Swannies beginning to win this arm wrestle was the tireless Dave “Angry / Crazy” Hadley started to get it going our way in the ruck. Nat “strawbs o dwyer / luke hodge / dummy lead / aaron fiora / all asian player” Payne repelled every Barbarian forward foray like he was laying the smack down in the octagon. The twin pronged attack of Danny Armstrong and Timmay “the Vung Tau massive cage fighter” Clements were straightening us up and giving a focal point while Mat “the eveready bunny” Nattlotto and Kev “2 time Asian champs superstar and hot pants wearing swannie glamour boy” Hornblower kept pumping it into the forwards. All this led to the moment we had waited 4 years for: when Sam “Triple S” Stevens, also from the V.T.M., slotted a set shot from a near impossible angle to seal the result and make Swannies history.
The Barbarians were the Swannies first ever scalp in a Champs. Mega achievement in a mega city
On a side note, in light of the magnitude of this result you would have expected post game pandemonium. However, due to the fact that there was no scoreboard, some people were unsure of the result, so, it took a while for everyone to realise we had won… only in Asia.
Danny Arm and others did call for the song but as we felt bigger and better things were to come we were glad we waited until the end of the day to pump out one of the best renditions heard in Swannies history VFL, AFL inclusive.
From a personal point of view I think all the Swannies should be proud of the weekend’s result, which has been achieved by many peoples efforts over a long period of time. Well done you Swannies and let’s now make our next MASSIVE effort to hold the Indochina Cup aloft on our home turf next month on 27 November.
Honk Honk Dukes.