Vietnam Swans AFC

[cos789]

Vietnam
If you would like to play Aussie Rules in Vietnam please contact the Vietnam Swans.

Aussie Rules has been played in Vietnam since 1998 when the Saigon Saints were formed by expatriate Australians. It was followed shortly after by new rivals the Hanoi Hawks, also established by Australian expatriates. The Saigon Saints stopped playing in 2001.

In 2003, footy was reborn in Hanoi under the Hanoi Swans banner with a tri-nations tournament against Hong Kong and Thailand. In 2007, a movement started in Saigon to get footy up again with the goal of combining with Hanoi to form a national team, the Vietnam Swans.

In July 2007, the Vietnam Swans played together for the first time in Bangkok for the 8th Annual Asian Championships. They returned to the Asian Championships in 2008 in Singapore.

A team drawn from the Melbourne Vietnamese community also competed in the Australian Football Multicultural Cup in both years of the competition's existence (2004, 2005) and has competed against touring teams from the Japan Samurai. Members of this team have expressed interest in working to develop Aussie Rules amongst local players in Vietnam, with plans to visit Hanoi for matches against the Vietnam Swans.

Players from this squad eventually formed the Elgar Park Dragons, a team mainly made up of Vietnamese-Australians affiliated with Box Hill North in the Victorian Amateur Football Association. In 2009, the Dragons became a stand-alone club under the name Southern Dragons, moving to the Southern Football League.

A number of Vietnamese members of the Elgar Park Dragons also played for Team Asia at the 2008 Australian Football International Cup.

http://www.aussierulesinternational.com ... ia/vietnam

[NSWAFL]

Go Vietnam!