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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

Click on the photo of the Grand Final Party below to enlarge. 

Not withstanding the fact that it was a thrashing, it was awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome. More news later.

Last Thursday night was the 2nd Annual Vietnam Swans Grand Final Cyclo Parade. More news on this soon.

Mr Will (pictured on the left at last year’s Grand Final Party in Hanoi) will head to the MCG tomorrow to see if his beloved Cats can resist the temptation of choking in front of a big crowd.

Will kicks off tonight with a St Pats Football Reunion Dinner for “every player to have played in the 1st 18″ (how special will Mr Will feel when he tells people that he played in the winning Hanoi/Vietnam Swans team against Jakarta last year?).

Alas, the mighty Micky Francis, also a St Pats Boy, won’t be there. He’ll be doing the hard yards keeping the home fires burning in Hanoi.

Meanwhile, Mr Gus, in both photos with Mr Will and Mr Mick, will be in Saigoin for the Saigon Saints’ bash.

Fellow Tipsters, it’s time to digress from the Big One, which incidentally will be a ‘lay down mizairre (sic) for Geelong.

But before I digress, and before Teacher Taber corrects my spelling, I should point out that, although I am a whiz at Euchre, I have no idea how to spell ‘mizaire’ (sic again!).

Now, to digress. In last week’s Blog, I forgot to announce the lucky  winner of the week before’s quiz. The question was ‘When he plays, what’s in Ben Cousin’s drinks bottle?

‘Winner, and bottle of Jim Beam, goes to diehard Crows supporter, Coach Stacey who answered correctly ‘”He rarley has a drinks bottle, but when he does it’s usually filled with a mix a Coke and Pils”.

This week’s quiz question:Rumour has it, Warren Tredrea is dacked by his own team mates before the start of every game as part of a long standing Port Adelaide pre-game motivation ritual. But that’s not the question. The question is: ‘What colour undies was Big Warren wearing when he was dacked during this year’s Adelaide v/s Port home and away derby at AAMI Stadium?First correct answers will win the usual bottle of Jim Beam plus the signed, unwashed and mounted jocks
actually worn during the game.Now for the tips and a related question to start the ball rolling:  Will Gary Ablett become the second Gary Ablett to win the Norm Smith Medal, albeit playing in a losing side? A rhetorical question as I’ve already stated in no uncertain terms that the CATS WILL WIN. Winning margin 10 points in a relatively luck lustre game.

• Attendance 86,761
• First goal: Tom Moody
• Norm Smith Medalist: Not Gary Ablett. 

Some unrelated predictions:

• Bomber Thompson to coach Essendon in 2008
• Chris Judd to wear black and white in 2008
• Dean Laidley to get the chop in 2008
• Lance Whitnall to marry his brother’s wife

 Happy punting!!

See you at The Big One. GO PIES!!!