Controversy has swept over the Vietnam Swans camp on the news that Western Bulldogs premiership players Luke Dahlhaus and Tom Liberatore have been omitted from the final lineup to contest the 17th AFL Asian championships at RMIT Saigon Campus this Saturday 15th October.
Fresh from winning the AFL premiership less than two weeks ago, Dahlhaus and Liberatore failed to show up to the Swans final training session and were spotted on Saigon’s infamous Bui Vien strip happily sinking local beers all afternoon.
While AFL Asia’s tough rules regarding ring-ins may yet have prevented the pair from pulling on the Swans jumper, Swannies bosses were furious at the news the pair were a no show to Thursday’s final training session and have named them as Swans emergencies and coaches of the first ever women’s game at Asian Champs.
“Winning the AFL Premiership has obviously gone to their heads, what did they think they were coming to Saigon for…a good time?” said Swannies Assistant Coach Tim Burdeu.
Swans President and AFL Asia VP Grant Keys was equally unimpressed, “I was ready to go into battle for them at Friday nights AFL Asia Presidents meeting to get these silly ring in rules changed, but they can now have a good hard think about their actions on the sidelines and help our two women’s teams prepare for their historic first game at Champs.”
The Swannies first and second division teams will do battle with 16 other teams from across Asia on Saturday for the biggest Asian Champs ever held, with a 3-team, all-local player All-Asia Cup kicking off proceedings on Friday from 2pm (local time, 6pm AEST).
Friday’s All-Asia Cup and Saturday’s Asian Champs finals will be streamed live on
Vietnam Swans teams:
Division 1:
Dan Morrison, Vaughan Swart, Scott Walsh, Nathan Milner, Ben Armstrong, Bill Crang, Chris Salmon, Tuan Nhan, Bart Schneeman, Tim Clements, Andy Glendinning, Jason Carter, Grant Keys, Tim Pickert, Mitch Hyde, Angus McEwan, Jake Norris, Tim Burdeu, Damien Judd, Tom Doer, Thomas Robinson, James Bairstow, Sean Milner, Josh Daly, Thomas Niit, Tony Horne
Emergencies: Luke Dahlhaus, Tom Liberatore
Division 2:
Paul Koch, Luke Turner, Jon Aspin, Evan Koch, Harry Hodge, Alex Maskiel, Brewster, Chris Scheller, Kevin Wilkinson, Nguyen Le (Joey), Steven Diep, Tristan Robinson, Michael Johnston, Brad McNamara, Kyle Hackenburg, Nguyen Dinh Anh, Linh, Huynh Quang Vinh, Trent Davies, Roy Horgan, Trung Lee, Barnaby Morgan, Matt Wilton, Shane McFarlane
