On 12 October 2013, the Vietnam Swans shall play a match against the Southern Dragons, a team from Melbourne comprising mostly players of Vietnamese origin. We shall also host an Auskick clinic with .

The day after, Garry will set off for Hanoi – running and riding a bicycle – to raise money for KOTO (Know One Teach One). The fundraiser will be known as . After arriving in Hanoi, we will again host an Auskick clinic which will be held on 21 October.

During the week, Andrew Cadzow, the AFL’s Asia Pacific Development Manager, confirmed that the AFL would support RunKOTORun.

As well as putting a media release on its website, the AFL is organising 100 Auskick packs and 50 junior footballs.

They are also dontaing a signed jumper from Ron Barassi that will be auctioned to assist the fundraising.

Ron Barassi is no stranger to the Swannies, of course. After all, Ronald Dale was the man to award former Swannies’ Skipper Dukesey, the Player of the Manila Cup back in May.

October is shaping up to be another big month for the Swannies!

In the lead up to the Asian Championships, Coach, Andy Glendinning has put together a smoking training/athletics/footy weekend in Vung Tau on 6-7 July 2013. Andy provides full details below.

Things are heating up for the Vung Tau weekend on 6-7 July 2013. So, don’t miss it!

We will be competing in a REDS Vs WHITES ATHLETICS/FOOTBALL CARNIVAL. See the events below.

Prizes (to be confirmed)

The winning side will be awarded cinema passes, Spotted Cow vouchers, Chilli Bar vouchers, Vung Tau Bar vouchers and more to all members of the winning side.

Athletics will be split into Division 1 for the good runners and Division 2 for the not so good runners.

• 1st 100 points
• 2nd 60 points
• 3rd 30 points

Schedule – Saturday, 6 July

8.00am. Ferry to Vung Tau from HCMC

11.30am

• Div 1, 800m. Div 2, 800m
• Div 1 400m. Div 2, 400m
• Div 1, 200m. Div 2, 200m
• Div 1, 100m. Div 2, 100m

Team Relays

• 100m relay football batons
• 200m relay football batons

1.00pm – Lunch. Tommy’s Bar sausage sizzle

2.00pm – Team Events

• Football tunnel ball 100 points
• Piggy back relays 100 points
• Handball races 100 points
• Kicking races 100 points
• Div 1 Goal kicking event
• Div 2 Goal kicking event

4.00 – 5.30 Free time

5.30 – Meet at bar (to be announced) for pre dinner drinks

• Presentations to winning side
• B.O.G announced

7.30pm – Dinner

9.00pm – After dinner drinks (to be announced)

Sunday 7 July

9.00am RED V WHITES, Game 2

11.00am – Tommy’s Bar. Lunch and awards

2.00pm – Ferry to Saigon

Let’s all get on this great weekend. It will be a great event!

To confirm your attendance, email the coach, now!

The Vietnam Swans have received great support from sponsors in recent years – and especially this year. Please see the logos above of our National Sponsors and further details below.

The Vietnam Swans thank each of our sponsors for their very generous contributions in 2013.

Signature Sponsor

If you would like further information about the benefits of sponsoring the Vietnam Swans, email now.

The Swannies have now added Niagra Falls to our album of .

Former Hanoi President and Official Legend of the Swannies, Dave Kainey was at Niagra Falls yesterday wearing his Swannies cap.

Do you have a Classic Swannies’ Shot from somewhere around the world? Then email your photo to the now.

To see the Swannies’ album of Classic Shots that includes photos from Antarctica to Mt Kilimanjaro, .

Yesterday, the Cricket Australia shocked the cricketing world by dumping coach, Micky Arthur just three weeks prior to the 2013 Ashes campaign. Micky will be replaced by Darren Lehmann.

Social media has been ablaze with rumours that Darren may in fact be the Swannies former Saigon President, Derrin Limbrick!

Go you Swannies!

On 28 July 2013, the will be held in Danang.

As the organiser’s website states:

• A sand castle competition is an extremely popular type of event held in many seaside locations all over the world.
• Not just sand “castles” but any structure made from sculptured sand.
• Competitors of all ages and abilities can easily join and really enjoy such an event.
• The event is “FUN in the sun” and a healthy way of spending a terrific day at the beach with family and friends.
• We anticipate a fast growing event year on year and regional competitors flying in to participate.
• Spectator numbers will grow year on year as well making this a spectacular annual event in beautiful Danang.
• Danang is set to be a regional HOT SPOT for such events.
• Teams are comprise between 2 and 4 people on each project station. Usually 4.
• Each station is approximately 5 meters long.
• 500 teams of 4 =  2,000 people being creative and having fun on the beach.
• 500 teams x 5 meters each = 2.5 kilometers of beautiful beach under transformation.

It should be a cracking event.

And its relevance to the Vietnam Swans, you may ask?

Well, the Swannies need to beef up our presence in Danang and Hoi An.

How good would it be to recruit a Swannies Sand Sculptor who, once he’s finished building the sand castles, could join the Swannies in time for the Asian Championships in Thailand!

For further information:

• Visit the Vietnam Sand Castles Competition’s and/or

Want to join the Vietnam Swans Australian Football Club in Danang, Hoi An, Hanoi, Saigon or Vung Tau?

Click here for further information or now.

Back in July 2010, the Swannies in Melbourne had a day at the MCG to watch the footy as part of a Sydney Swans official pre match function.

This year, the Swannies alumni and friends will catch up again at the MCG for the big clash on 17 August, 2013, between Richmond and Carlton.

What makes the date of 17 August 2013 particularly important because it’s the day the Vietnam-based Swannies will take on Asia’s best: the 14th Annual Asian Championships in Thailand.

During the Asian Champs, we will be able to text back progressive results of matches to the Swannies at the MCG.

The Swannies plan to make the day at the footy in Melbourne an annual Swannies tradition which will be timed to coincide with the Asian Champs.

Already a number of big guns back in Oz have confirmed their attendance including Dukesy Creamer (former Captain), Dez Limbrick (former Saigon President), Nat Payne, Revo Evans and Man Mountain Edo Davide.

Final details are still to be confirmed.

If you would like to attend, please contact in Vietnam or in Melbourne.

Yesterday, the Herald Sun newspaper published an article titled, .

An abridged copy of the article has been reproduced below.

An icon of Australia’s war in Vietnam, the Long Tan cross is heading back to Vietnam after almost a year on loan to the Australian War Memorial.

Harry Smith… built the original, using scrap steel from the rubbish dump at the Nui Dat base for reinforcing, gravel from the roadside and cement mixed up in a wheel barrow.

Long Tan was a significant battle of Australia’s war in Vietnam.

It was fought between 108 members of Delta Company of the 6th Battalion (6RAR) and a 2000-strong force of North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers in the Long Tan rubber plantation on August 18, 1966.

Eighteen Australians died.

When 6RAR returned for its second deployment in 1969, then as a composite Australian-New Zealand unit, a memorial cross was created to be placed on the battle site and dedicated on the third anniversary.

McAvinue, 75, of Chelsea, Victoria, said he got the job as other Long Tan veterans were out on operations.

“I said ‘what do you want?’ They said: ‘That’s up to you, you’re the expert’,” he said.

Scrounging up materials took around a week.

Reinforcing steel was straightened with a sledge hammer and cut with a hacksaw. Construction of the formwork took a day.

Cement was allowed to cure for a fortnight and then a brass plaque, made up in the base engineering workshop, was affixed with brass screws salvaged from a wooden ammo box.

The finished item, standing about two metres tall and weighing more than 100 kilograms, was flown beneath an Iroquois helicopter to the battle site and set into the ground.

It was dedicated in a moving ceremony on August 18, 1969, an event requiring a significant military operation as the area was regarded far from secure.

“When everybody put it up and we all walked away from it, I thought ‘that’s the last we will ever see of it’. Forty-odd years later it turns up in Australia,” McAvinue said.

Following the fall of Saigon to communist forces in 1975, the cross vanished.

At one stage it marked the grave of a Vietnamese Catholic priest and for the past 20 years it’s resided in the Dong Nai Museum, which agreed to loan it to the Australian War Memorial.

Vietnam veterans gathered for a farewell reception, an event preceded by the war memorial’s increasingly popular “last post” closing time ceremony. At each such ceremony the story of one soldier is recounted…

Smith said the cross symbolised the 17 soldiers he lost plus the armoured personnel carrier commander killed in the rescue mission.

“It also symbolises the whole of the Vietnam War (including) the 520 people we lost…”

• To read the full article from the Herald Sun, click onto .

‘Chin Up’ Magazine is a magazine of the Vietnam Veterans’ Community back in Australia. The Winter 2013 issue of Chin Up has just been released. In it, the welcome message from National President, Phil Johns in the 2013 ANZAC Friendship Match footy record was published.

The welcome message is reproduced below.

Just 17 days after our inaugural ANZAC Friendship Match in 2010, a comment was left on the Vietnam Swans’ website by a guy called Stan Middleton: “I served in Vung Tau in 1967-68. A full scale Aussies Rules Competition – the Vietnam Football League (VFL) – was conducted between Australian units twice a year… on the Lord Mayor’s Oval”.

Stan had just given the ANZAC Friendship Match an anchor point like no other. Thank goodness the Swannies had an updated website. Thank goodness Stan, the VFL’s “official historian”, had found it just two weeks after our first.

Today, Stan Middleton will return to the Lord Mayor’s Oval to watch two games of footy. In the evening, he will deliver the Middleton Address at the McMillan Dinner flanked by two VFL premiers, Ron Vernon (1967) and Richard “Johno” Johnston (two flags in 1968) and the late Kev McMillan’s son, Dave.  Poignantly, the Dinner will be held at the Imperial Hotel which stands on the site of the former Peter Badcoe Club.

Around South East Asia today, commemorative ANZAC Matches will be played in Borneo and Singapore. And, of course, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, where the Thailand Tigers host South East Asia’s seminal ANZAC Match.

In Vung Tau, all players shall wear two black armbands to explicitly recognize that, in times of war, personal tragedies are suffered irrespective of national flags.

The ANZAC Friendship Match aims to use Australia’s Signature Sport as a unifying force to blend vastly different worlds. It aims, primarily, to bring the worlds of Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand closer together. It aims to bring the polar worlds of 1969 and 2013 together to improve the level of understanding. It aims to improve the health and well being of Vietnamese children by proactively supporting the Vung Tau Orphanage, Swim Vietnam and Water Safety Vietnam.

Support for the concept behind this weekend is encouraging. Numbers of people attending the Match and Dinner grow each year. Articles for this ANZAC Record have been received from a significant stream of significant persons swirling the world. Items of memorabilia have been donated by the Sydney Swans, GWS Giants, Brisbane Lions and West Coast Eagles to raise money for the above causes. And, separately, individuals have also been raising funds to help make a difference.

Today’s three match balls have been donated by the AFL and Sherrin.

This year marks the 40^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Australia and the Vietnam Swans, again, would like to thank our Vietnamese hosts for warmly welcoming us to their country.

In turn, the Vietnam Swans would like to welcome all Vietnamese, veterans, friends and the Jakarta Bintangs to today’s match, which, incidentally, is also an Official East Asian Australian Football League (EAAFL) Match and the 5^th Kainey Cup played between these two teams.

Today is about both reflection and celebration. Enjoy the two games of football (including the Legends and All Stars match) and the McMillan Dinner in the spirit that they are offered.

Next year, will be Gallipoli’s 99^th anniversary. And the Vietnam Swans will look forward to welcoming you back to the Lord Mayor’s Oval for the 2014 ANZAC Friendship Match.

The Swannies will begin the third season of Red v White scratch matches this Saturday at RMIT. After season 1 and 2, the swannies community has been left asking for more and more is what they will get. If you thought the first 2 series were full of action packed drama, just wait for the 3^rd season. The teams have been changed and there are some new big exciting match ups.

• Who: Reds v Whites
• What: Season 3, Match 1
• Where: RMIT District 7
• When: Saturday 22^nd June 2:00
• Why: To put on a spectacle of high class Aussie Rules footy.

Umpire: The best in the Southern Hemisphere “ROCKET”.

Whites:

The white defence will be led by no other than funny man Phil. Off the field he is really funny but on the field he is really angry. He will be backed up with a stellar support crew of Travy the hard nut butcher, Benny the mad Welshman, and Michael who lost his phone on the weekend and made all sorts of false accusations against the staff of the hotel he was staying at. He is angry about this and will be looking to ‘wail’ on whoever gets in his way.

The midfield is hard, fast and fit. Dave O’Shea will be joined by Irish Brian who is dirty off the field and filthy on the field, Little Joshy who has the smallest head and feet in South East Asia and Seany Milner who may be absent from this game as he is currently in Aus with his brother Nathan.  Big Lukey Miller will ruck for the whites.

Both teams have big forward lines. The whites will line up with Nick Moggy, Adam ‘Stacker’ Corall, GUS, HORN, Nick Shiels who is making a comeback after being out for most of last year and this year with an injured knee, Mark Stennet and Shagger.

Reds:

The red defence will be led by new captain Billy Crang. He will have back up in the likes up Damo Judd, French import Mark, Kiwi import Kurt and Adelaide import Trent. A real international flavor to the red backline.

In the middle Damo Bal will be supported by Irish John, Saigon’s favourite cop ‘Josh’ and Nathan Milner. In exciting news for the Swans, a new ruckman has been unleashed. Coach Andy was excited about the looks of the newest Josh who had his first training session last weekend.  The swans now have 3 ‘New Josh’s’ on their roster.

Like the whites, the reds also have a big forward line. Powelly is living the dream now sailing somewhere in the Mediterranean so will be unavailable for this match. Never to worry, the reds have a number of stars in their forward line that can all kick goals. Kyle, Fabbo, Revo (probably won’t turn up), Andy, Timmay and Ross all are big names for the swans and the red defence will have headaches with that list of players.

Budweiser Beer – Gold Sponsor of the Vietnam Swans in 2013

The Vietnam Swans are delighted to confirm that is pleased to support Great Times with the Vietnam Swans.

And with the Vietnam Swans, you never have to wait long before our next Great Time at a Mega Swannies’ Function (MSF).

Budweiser – Great Times Are Waiting!

Vietnam Swans’ National President, Phil Johns, said that he was thrilled with Budweiser’s Gold Sponsorship of the Vietnam Swans.

“Playing footy in the heat and humidity of Vietnam is tough”, said Johns. “But, knowing there’s an icy cold Budweiser waiting for us at the end… It just makes the magic moment of the first sip especially golden.”

“And, just two months before we try to become the King of the Footy at the Asian Champs in Thailand, it seems very appropriate that we are sponsored by the , Budweiser!”

Budweiser enters Vietnamese market

On 26 April, 2013, VOV’s website published an article titled, .

An abridged version of the article has been reproduced below.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest beer maker with famous beer brand name Budweiser, plans to build a brewery in Vietnam next year to tap the large and fast-growing Asia market.

Vietnam, with a population of about 90 million, is considered one of the most attractive markets in the region for brewers, with estimated beer sales growing by 10 percent annually from 2010 to 2020.

Anheuser-Busch InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito says his firm has already got the land license for the project.

According to Euromonitor International’s recent survey, Vietnam ranked first in Southeast Asia for beer drinking, with nearly 2.6 billion litres of beer consumed in 2011…

From all the Vietnam Swans, thank you to Budweiser for becoming a Gold Sponsor of the Vietnam Swans.

See you at Saturday’s Reds Vs Whites Match in Saigon – which will be followed by a refreshing Budweiser!

With the Swannies and Budweiser, Great Times are Waiting!

Related items

• To view the original and complete article, .
• To view the Budweiser website, .
• To view the Vietnam Swans’ 2013 list of sponsors, click here.
• Budweiser is the second sponsorship announced this week by the Vietnam Swans. This is the same week that our new Captain, Bill Crang, took over the captaincy from Luke “Dukesy” Creamer who has returned to Australia.

With the much heralded string of recent departures, the Swannies are again recruiting in earnest.

Attached is a poster encouraging Wannabee Swannies, from the north to the south, to join the Club, There is also a number of upcoming events listed on the poster that will be distributed around town, published in the Word magazine and included in the next Auscham newsletter.

Alas, already the calendar of events is already out of date. More have been added in just the last couple of days. That’s the thing about the Swannies: the rolling momentum of the Club always has us moving forward.

So, recruit a Swannie. Today!

For enquiries, speak to your nearest Swannie or email the , or Presidents.

Artwork is by . Ah McRae, you’ve done it again!