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| The Vietnam Swans Australian Rules Football team after they defeated the Cambodia Cobras last month in Phnom Penh in the lead up to the Asean Championships in Shanghai in October - Photo: The official website of Vietnam Swans |
But there is another contest coming up that is equally important to a group of footy fans here – the annual Australian Rules Football Asian Championships that this year are being held in Shanghai.
The China weekend of games that starts October 16 will attract teams of Aussie expats from all over Asia. The Vietnam Swans will be going with players from Hanoi, HCMC and Vung Tau to meet teams from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, you name it. All of these places have Aussies who are working overseas that are keen to see as much of the region as possible and take part in sports and the social events while they are here.
On Saturday August 28, in the lead-up to the champs, the Saigon Swans played the Hanoi Hawks in Hanoi and got blitzed 15 goals, 6points to 6 goals, 9 points.
“It was a wake-up call in the preparation for the Asian Champs,” said Vietnam Swans President Phil (Fabbo) Johns who is based in Saigon.
He explained that the Saigon chapter of the national team make up 90% of the Vietnam team players who play in international matches like the Asia Championships. “So it was a bit concerning that Saigon got rolled so easy,” he said adding, “Hanoi just came out of the box and blitzed it.”
Mark Williams from the Hanoi team said he was very pleased to back up another win against Saigon after the first annual ANZAC Day game in Vung Tau earlier this year that Hanoi had only won by a single point.
Perhaps at Saturday’s match in Hanoi the Saigon Swans had been disconcerted earlier in the day when there was talk of the game being canceled due to bad weather. It had been raining all week in Hanoi and the playing field at the United Nations International School was flooded. It wasn’t till almost lunch that they heard they could go ahead.
Hanoi’s scoring was strongly bolstered by a twelth grade player who managed to almost score the winning margin on his own – obviously taking full advantage of the age difference between him and most of the Saigon defenders.
Johns said he hoped to get the young fellow to join the team in Shanghai.
The weekend before the match the Swans held a car boot sale to raise money for the trip to the Asian Championships that was sponsored by Vietnam Homewares and Crown relocations.
Also this month the team started holding Aus Kick every Sunday 8-9am at the AIS Sports Center in Thao Dien for any kids who are interested in the sport.
