Gun Swannie’s player, Lucas Skelton, has decided to well and truly hang up the boots. Tomorrow, Lucas, Michelle and their new baby, Flynn James, will return to Australia.

Lucas has said,

Once again, we have loved being involved with the Swannies and all that goes with it. I will try to come back to Vietnam next year for the Swing to Swim Charity Golf Day, at Montgomerie Links, with some mates.

I will also be sure to get to the Swannies’ Melbourne events including the annual cricket and golf days in December.

The Vietnam Swans wish Lucas, Michelle and Flynn the very best with their return back to Australia. You will be missed and we thank you for all that you have contributed.

Perhaps Lucas’ biggest legacy will be the role he played in setting up this year’s Inaugural Swing to Swim Charity Golf Day that raised $25,000 for swimming initiatives in Vietnam. Who knows how big this Golf Day will be in five years’ time?

On Thursday, 1 September, exactly one month before the Vietnam Swans 2011 AFL Grand Final Parties in Saigon and Hanoi, we will announce full details.

Lick yer lips, stroke the Sherrin and honk your horn!

The Vietnam Swans AFL Grand Final Parties are back. Bigger. Better. And over here in Vietnam.

To see what happened last year, click here.

Last week, on 22 August 2011, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Pacific Island Affairs, Richard Marles, co-signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Australian Football League’s International Development Manager, Mr Tony Woods. Below is a transcript of the Government’s which outlines how Australia’s Signature Sport can be used to promote Australia and vice versa.

Under this MOU, the Australian Government will work with the AFL to support the development of the code overseas. The AFL will also assist the Government to promote trade and investment, using Australian football as a platform.

The AFL will where possible hold at least one exhibition game a year to maximise trade and brand opportunities, and notify the Government of likely offshore events.

The Government will provide assistance to the AFL in identifying up to four profiling events overseas annually, and will facilitate contact between the AFL and companies likely to sponsor offshore AFL events.

Mr Marles said the MOU formalises the continuation of the close working relationship that has emerged between the Australian Government and AFL in the past two years, resulting in several joint activities.

These include the AFL exhibition game between Brisbane Lions and Melbourne Demons, held at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, and the AFL game between Pacific and Indigenous Australian teams at the 40th Pacific Island Forum in Cairns in 2009.

“The MOU recognises that the AFL is growing internationally and we hope our continued collaboration will help develop the game’s export potential,” Mr Marles said.

The Vietnam Swans have long believed that Australia’s Signature Sport has a role to play in promoting Australia. Recently, we have heard a lot about how Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wishes to use Australia Network as a vehicle to promote Australia.

Perhaps soon, we may at least get the scores of regional ANZAC matches and the Asian Champs on Australia Network. That would give more credibility to our Signature Sport and the many players who live and work in the region, on a daily basis, as unofficial Australian ambassadors.

Comment from MJ

Newsline ran a story about the International Cup during last night’s edition (Aug 29).

Click on “Pacific Potential” for the video about how footy is going to surpass rugby (but soccer is still a hard ask).

Former Swannie, Chris Batchelor who toured to Bangkok in 2007 as part of our first Asian Champs campaign, has just moved to Palau. For those of you who aren’t familiar with , it’s 500kms east of the Philippines. Chris writes:

I’m on a 12 month assignment in Palau where, as in Viet Nam, they televise AFL non-stop on weekends over the AFL season. The sports mad president of the community college has been confused with the game since it first came on TV.

Immediately upon my arrival in Palau he gave me my first assignment: to explain AFL rules, via a footy clinic, to both him and the Palauan community (population 20,000 spread over some pretty nice islands). According to the president, there is a chance of introducing the game here with the eventual goal of taking a team to the Arafura Games or other annual competition in Melbourne. Big goals but possible in the long term.

In the short term, Chris is now securing some Auskick gear through the AFL to set up those footy clinics.

Chris then signs off his email  with, “Cheers from Palau – a tough posting for those who don’t like fishing, diving and surfing.”

Judging from the view from his balcony (see photo above), there seems to be a lot of jungle and water. Palau just might be a tough posting for anyone wanting to run a footy clinic. And those footies may end up being used as floaties!

Footnotes:

• In the photo above at the MCG, next to Chris, is former Hanoi President Daryl Taber and current National President, Phil Johns. In a coup for the Swannies Website, Daryl Taber shall return for the AFL Finals with his hard hitting column, Taber Talk. It’s bound to be highly controversial and highly read.
• The photo at the MCG was taken on 28 December 2008 when Australia was playing South Africa. This year the 5th Vietnam Swans Annual Cricket Day at the MCG will be held on 28 December when Australia plays India. The following day, the 7th Vietnam Swans Annual Golf Day will be held in Melbourne at Royal Ivanhoe Golf Course. Click here for the Vietnam Swans 2011 Calendar.

Joanne Stewart, Director of , sends out the 2011 Summer Newsletter (Swim Vietnam is supported by the Vietnam Swans).

(formerly the Tribob Children’s Swimming Program) is having a great summer.  We achieved our highest results yet in Program 2 with 88 per cent of children completing the course able to swim at least 20m.  This is a great testament to our Vietnamese swim teachers who are doing a fabulous job!

Thanks to some very experienced volunteers (Lucy and Jenny), we were able to implement a class for children with disabilities.  These children have cerebral palsy and seeing them gain confidence and feel the joy of the water is wonderful.  They are all progressing really well but there is one baby (Cun) who always makes me smile. Before coming to class she could not hold her head up and just wanted to be held close all the time. Now, she loves floating on her back, being moved from side to side. She can now lift her head up and smiles and laughs during every class, as do her mother, father and both grandfathers who come to watch every lesson.

This year we are making some initial inroads into becoming financially self sustaining.  We have started holding adult classes, the fee for which is used directly to fund the free lessons for children.  We already have around 40 adults participating in lessons, most of whom are women. They are hoping to be able to take their own children to the beach and teach them to swim, which will significantly benefit the whole community in the long-term.  Thank you to Tanya Carmont, who was a great help with this and numerous other projects. We are also starting to sell merchandise, so watch this space – you will soon be able to own your very own Swim Vietnam rash vests and T-shirts!

As part of our continuing focus on safety issues, we held our inaugural water safety presentation in Luong The Vinh primary school just before summer holidays started. We taught all the children basic water safety rules, general beach and river awareness and a water safety song.  We will take this presentation to all schools in the area when the school holidays are over in August.

Funding request

We have received a significant donation which will allow us to build a new swimming pool in Hoi An.  We now need to raise additional funds in order to build a roof, fence, changing rooms, equipment room etc. This new pool will allow us to teach many more children as we are currently reaching only a fraction of the children in Hoi An. If you or your company would like to help with this, please contact me at .  Donations can now be made directly via our website at .

Many thanks to all our supporters.  Particularly to Barclays Capital, Vietnam Swans, Montgomerie Links, Metasport, Austswim, Palm Garden Resort, Banyan, Knight Frank, Blue Gecko Clothing Store, Silverwave Travel, Water Skills for Life Association, this years volunteers (Tanya Carmont, Lucy Wilson and Jenny Kaposi), John Liddbetter and to everyone who has donated time, equipment or money to the program. Your help is really appreciated by all at Swim Vietnam. Without your continued support this program would not be able to continue.

The Weekly Update from the Saigon President, Derrin Limbrick.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend off and are now keen to get your hands on the footy again especially fresh from our success at the Asian Champs.  Training is back on this week, however we will be running the session at Parklands, 628 A Vo Truong Tuan St, District 2 (just off the Hanoi Highway). Make sure you bring your runners as we will be looking at a 6 km road run prior to training…

No, just kidding. Josh has actually got a light session planned which will include a lot of work with the footy.  So it should be a nice, enjoyable afternoon.

After training, rather than hanging around for a beer, we have arranged a table at Al Fresco’s in An Phu, where we can share a few stories from the Asian Champs.  It was a piece of history for our Club and we should all be enjoying the moment, especially considering how it really was a great team effort over the whole weekend.  We encourage you to bring your families and partners along. We will be putting on a couple of cold beers and of course you can order food as required.  As a special treat we will be running a slide show of photo’s from the weekend and possibly a short film based on the inaugural ANZAC Friendship Match in Vung Tau last year.

The Vietnam Swans 2011 AFL Grand Final Party, Saigon, 1 October

The Swans Committee is feverishly working to secure the venue for this year’s AFL Grand Final Party. This year will be even bigger than the previous years’ events so make sure you lock the 1st October in your calendar and tell your friends. We are hoping to make an announcement this weekend so stay tuned.

AusCham Ball, 17 September

For those who are interested, there is still a table available for the Club at the upcoming .  If you have interest in securing a ticket, please get back to myself or Fabbo and we will see if we can make it work.   It would be great to have a Swannies’ presence on the night as AusCham are great promoters of our events throughout the year.  Please see the attachment for more information.

Vietnam International Triathlon, Hoi An, 10-11 September

This unique triathlon kicks off on the palm-fringed sands of stunning Cua Dai Beach then winds its way into tropical hinterland which is home to many of the Vietnam’s major historical treasures, including the ancient World Heritage town of Hoi An.

Swannies receive a 10 per cent discount.

for further information.

Bitexco Vertical Challenge, 30 October

This is going out to those who love the thought of running up 49 flights of stairs, are crazy bored, or are looking to scale new heights (no matter how strange it seems).  To help announce the Bitexco Tower to the world, there will be a race from the ground floor to the viewing deck, which amounts to 49 flights of stairs.  The race will be held on 30th October and we are considering entering a Swannies team.  If you think this is something for you, let me know.  For more information please .

C. Daniel Hopkins, Hanoi President of the Vietnam Swans, thanks the tourers to the 2011 Asian Championships below:

This year’s Australian Football Asian Champs 2011 in Bang Kok was a huge weekend for the Vietnam Swans. We truly became a national club combining two big continents from Saigon and Hanoi as well as blokes from Da Nang, Hoi An and not to mention the Vung Tau Massive.

Coming together to gel for one day can be a hard task. Though in true Swannies spirit, all the boys gelled superbly and we came away with our best ever result: semi finals.

From a Hanoi perspective, I was hugely proud of our boys who turned up to play and gave it their all, all day.  We have been training hard for a long time now and it paid off on the day.

Having said that, massively proud of all the players and supporters that turned up on the day and also to the people who could not make it but who trained and worked behind the scenes to make the 2011 Champs so successful.

Special mentions should also go out to the following:

•  Non playing supporters: Larry, Rowan, Kris, Sam, Dave Kainey, Paul Schwert, Michael Francis and all the Wags.
• The couching panel: Dez, Nick, Adrian, Dukes, Josh (Ed’s note: “and Dan”).
• The All Asians: Dez and Dukes
• Our super banner man:  Ross
• Mr. National President: Fabulous Phil Johns “absolutely awesome”.

The Swannies truly put our stamp on Asian football last weekend making other teams stand up and take notice. This is due to all involved in the Swannies and we can all hold our heads up high and be proud of our efforts.

‘No measurements in 2012!’

Go you mighty Swannies!

Daniel Hopkins
Hanoi President
Vietnam Swans Football Club

Last week, Mr Paul – the man who set up the San Diego Lions and is now a long serving Swannie- was in Nha Trang test sailing .

Naturally, he was wearing his Swannies’ hat designed by long serving Swannie, Ross McRae.

Naturally, the trimaran he was sailing was covered in graphics designed by… Ross McRae. Ah McRae, you’ve done it again.

Interestingly, in the graphic, the Tri Sisters trimaran has three sisters  shaped as mermaids against a background that makes them look suspiciously like… Swannnnnnnies!

Ah McRae, you’ve done it again!

, awesome design work. It is you who has Mr Pow-ell livin’ the dream. And, if you would like to ask Ross to do some graphic design work for your organisation, you can contact him by emailing .

Quick update on Mr Pow-ell: This week sailing in Croatia as he continues livin’ the dream…

National Coach, Josh Little reviews the Swannies semi final at the 2011 Asian Champs against the Singapore Wombats.

Twelve months ago, the Swans had never won a match at the Asia Champs. Just a week ago, the Swans had never reached the Semi Finals at the Asian Champs. Reaching this game marked an incredible achievement by the Club that used to travel to the Champs and come back empty handed. The Club now knows what it takes to win these games, they know what it takes to reach the finals and now, they know what it takes to win the Asian Champs.

The Swans went into this game full of confidence knowing that they were one win away from a Grand Final. After being beaten by Hong Kong the match before, we now had a chance to take on another Asian heavy weight in the Singapore Wombats.

The Swans came out hard but the speed and fitness of Singapore was evident from the first bounce. Our midfielders were helpless with the Wombats getting numbers to the center bounce instantly so it was four of our guys against 6 or 7 of theirs. Kev and Nicko did their best in the middle to try and assist Dukes, Aido and Trent but it appeared futile. Dezza was busy down back but as soon as he looked up, he was confronted by a “wall of Wombats” which made it difficult to clear the ball. The Swans went into half time well and truly down.

Having an extended break helped and the boys cooled down in the hot Bangkok heat. We gave it one last call, one last half of footy to show that the Swans could do it against the best.

The Swans came out hard. The first five minutes was good, strong, contested footy. Singapore was not able to play the free flowing game they did in the first half. David Skowronski was shifted to half back and was giving us something but a similar problem across the final two matches was the lack of options at half forward. The Swans gave it everything at the start of the half but Singapore got back on top to run out the match as the clearly superior team.

The Singapore Wombats took on the Hong Kong Dragons in the Grand Final with Singapore proving too strong. The Wombats had lost 3 Grand Finals in a row and now they finally got a chance at redemption.

The Swans took on the 2 strongest teams in Asia and lost. The Swans know they can be a top 4 team in Asia and possibly higher. We just need to keep setting our goals and working towards them. The Swans are getting close to our first ever Asian Championship!