The Asian Championships are on this Saturday, October 13 in KL. Read on for the latest on the event and the news from the Vietnam Swans Mens and Womens teams.
Setting the Scene for the 2018 Asian Championships
The Malaysian Warriors and their organising committee have outdone themselves on this years Champs preparations. The event is looking huge! 500 players in 20+ teams, mens and womens competitions, three playing fields and some of the best looking grass we’ve seen in years.
You can read more about the event over at The Malaysian Warriors announcement.
The Swans are really looking forward to the culmination of a big 2018 season. The Women will play 3 pool games on Saturday (and a forth if they make the Grand Final), while the Men are looking at 2 pool games before a series of elimination games.
The games will be played across three ovals and hopefully there will be live streaming via iFlix. You can download their app or watch the games via AFL Asia’s facebook page. Congratulations to everyone on delivering this technical feat!
Preview: The Lady Swans
It’s been a huge year for #AFLW in Asia. The competition in the region has grown quickly, lead by the efforts of AFL Asia and teams like the Cambodian Apsaras and The Malaysian Warrior Women, not to forget the work of Chia and our other early pioneers with the Saigon Gaels, including Maz, Siobahn and Laura.
The Lady Swans have been training hard since their launch in February 2018 and their subsequent debut against the Cambodian Apsaras. Check out the interview that featured Chia and Rosie Hoang, aired on VTC10 back in March:
The Lady Swans first season has been an undoubted success. Strong numbers, local players and even some on-field success: while the mens team took 7 years to win their first game on tour, the Lady Swans have managed that in their very first season!
On the team’s approach for the debut of #AFLW at Asian Champs, Chia said :
Leading up to the champs the girls have been training really hard and numbers have been great. We’re all focused on the biggest games of the year and we’ve really embraced the high-intensity preparation. We’ll need it: the girls will play 4 games on Saturday with a full side of 18 girls on the field for the first time in Asia!
The Lady Swans have developed some great relationships on and off the field in 2018. I’m hoping they can use these bonds to work as a team on Saturday. The Lady Swans have been practicing game scenarios that’ll hopefully help put some valuable points on the score board.
It’s with great pride that we announce our squad of 24 women that will compete in the very first #AFLW division of the Asian Championships. Lead by Chia and Katie, the team is:
Chia Sabbatucci (Coach / Captain)
Katie Walsh (Captain)
Naomi Reidy
Alex Zulieta
Stephanie Lee
Lucy Nguyen
Linh Nguyen
Heather Julien
Rebecca “Bex” Philips
Luzette “Lu” Hermon
Cindy Armstrong
Claire Hansen
Rosie Hoang
Lucy “LJ” Jones
Heather Turkle
Petra Bright
Trang Dang
Tracey Johnson
Emily Richie
Liu Hong Mei (“Mia”)
Nini Betran-Bullard
Siara North
Yen Nguyen
Leanne Raeside
Congratulations to everyone making the trip over and best of luck for the tournament.
Preview: The Mens
The mens team are back to the Asian Champs again in 2018! Rod “Rocket” White will coach the mens team in his first Asian Champs, and he’s looking forward to it:
After a series of standard games and the smaller tournament of the Indochina Cup, Asian Champs will be a unique challenge. Shorter games mean that scoreboard pressure becomes vitally important, and smaller teams playing for a much longer day mean that rotations become key. It’s very different to a standard four quarters of footy!
It’s been a massive few weeks off the field with AFL Grand Final and a few other club events, but the boys have been working pretty hard in the North and the South. While we’ve lost a few from the team at Indochina Cup due to injuries, we’ve picked up a few who weren’t able to travel to travel over to Phnom Penh back in August.
This year has been long but pretty successful so far. However, the eye has always been to perform well at this tournament. Hopefully we can cap off a great season!
Lining up in Division 2 against 11 other teams, the playing squad will include:
Rod White (Coach)
James Bairstow (Captain)
Bill Crang
Vaughan Swart
Tom Holden
Angus Mcewin
Trent Davies
Oscar Silk
Dinh Anh
Vinh Quang
Jono Mackay
Thomas Nitt
Luke Philpott
Thomas Delaney
Thomas Watson
Jake Norris
Harley Dorgan
Andrew Glendenning
Aaron Berry Cook
Alex Jones
Rodney Stone
Steven Diep
Good luck!
