About:

David ‘Flyer’ Kainey originally from Jakarta Bintangs, Robert Spur (one of Asias greatest footballers) bestowed on him the nick name of the ‘Bogor Flyer’, likening the trip from Bogor to Jakarta with the trip from Geelong to Melbourne (ala Bobbie Davis – the Geelong Flyer). Developing junior football in Indonesia and Vietnam was a passion. The Flyer has also been known to sleep with his footy.

About:

Mick Francis launched Friday night footy in Vietnam at Pepperoni’s in Hanoi. He played at full forward in the Swans inaugural tour in Malaysia, memories of those days are a little sketchy but he may have even kicked a goal.

Arriving in Hanoi in 1999 Mick started working with Jacko at the Alfresco’s Group. In 2004 he started his own business in Hanoi called the Vietnam Backpacker Hostels, which is still going strong in all major spots in Vietnam. In 2012 he started a hospitality company which includes awesome pubs like the Moose and Roo and the Republic. Mick loved being involved with the footy club, and believes it’s amazing what it does in all aspects of our community.

About:

First training session was at the Army dirt oval in Hanoi but I can only remember half of that as I was stretchered off due to lack of oxygen. Played in the inaugural game and believe the only touch I got was a Falcon in an otherwise unattended forward line that rebounded straight to a defender.

Played in the first away game in KL (2005) and the first Asian champs in Bangkok (2007) at which I had an illustrious coaching record of 0-4.

My main contributions were off-field and helped organize the travel to KL, Cambodia and Bangkok, brought in Andy Wall and Jim Beam to the Swannies and with Fabulous Phil Johns, helped expand the Swannies to HCMC in 2007 and was the inaugural Saigon President of the Vietnam Swans.

About:

Having heard about a mythical group that had once played a 3-team tournament and now watched footy in Ha Noi, I climbed 4 flights of stairs at Pepperoni’s to find a dark room and a bewildered staff member saying “not here any more”. So ended my first training session. They didn’t get any easier in the humidity at Dead Cat Stadium, but there were always plenty of liquid replenishment stations nearby.

Magic Moments:
First Thailand Tigers match at My Dinh Stadium (2004).
First OS match in KL (2005).
First Asian Champs in BKK (2007) with my shoulder used for mark of the tournament.
Semi-finals at Singapore Asian Champs- we didn’t kick a goal against Wombats or against Dragons in the previous match, but we got there!
Discussing ANZAC Matches with Phil Johns after Kanchanaburi and realising we wouldn’t be invited back for at least a decade, so why not do our own thing.
Wanting to be seen as more than just a bunch of ex-pats kicking the footy and drinking beer, then spending 2 years searching for a worthy charity to support in the form of Swim Vietnam.
Inaugural Central Vietnam Games in 2015.
Playing with people from bucketloads of countries.

About:

Three most influential people: Dave Kainey for introducing me to the world of footy across Asia. Scott Stacey and Mark Stennett for being key allies in establishing the Vietnam Swans and AFL Asia respectively.

Most significant year: 2009. (Now the late) Ex POWs Bill Haskell and Ernie Redman at the Thailand Tigers’ ANZAC Commemorative Match in Kanchanaburi (Thailand) and Australia’s Black Saturday Bushfires for showing me how footy in Asia can touch people’s lives in extraordinary ways.

How good’s footy in Asia!