Swans are up

Goal sneak and President of the Vietnam Swans Saigon City Committee, Super Savvy Scotty Stacey reviews last weekend’s block buster betwen the Lao Elephants and Vietnam Swans. 

It was clear from the start of the weekend that the Elephants were extremely wary of the mighty Swans fearful reputation and they embarked on a pre-game strategy of sabotage and mind games. Whilst all were impressed with the length of their efforts and power with the sabotage to Shannon’s passport and the subsequent blocking of his departure by Vietnam’s Immigration, the worn old chestnut of having the taxi’s drop the Swans off at the wrong place then speeding off only then to throw the boys in the back of Ute’s and rattle them down a bumpy dirt road at flat out speed may have back-fired on the Laos Lads.

By the time the mighty Swans, topped up with Matt and Tom the backpackers and Roger and Paul the new Laos Swans, they were fired up and ready for a serious Elephant Hunt.

The ball was bounced (well thrown up) for the first time of the day, a dominant tap, some slick short handballs in the guts and bang, within the first minute Sammy had slammed through the first of many (for him and the Swannies) and a deathly silence came across the crowd. Such despondency blackened the whole vicinity that Coach/Forward Pocket Scotty, the angel of a human being that he is, decided to first miss a straight forward snap then let a Pot Hole ripper bounce straight off his chest to set up the next two goals for the Phants as they hit the front for the first and only time some 10 minutes into the first quarter. Unfortunately for them however, that was as generous as the Vietnam could be and the Swans went onto to slam home 3 more for the first term and another 5 in the second term to take out a game winning 6 goal lead at half time.

The third quarter saw a more pumped up Laos unit as they endeavored to get back into the game but the Swans ended up taking out the quarter albeit by a slight margin. The final quarter was taken by the Phants as they showed the strength of a larger bench but it was also helped by a couple of easy misses, again led by Scotty.

The Lao Elephants rising strongly...

The Swans had winners all over the ground with Sammy Griggs running riot through the centre and half forward ending up with seven goals in a BOG performance. Drew was the dominant big guy around the ground taking strong marks and busting packs only to blot his own sheet by climbing higher than anyone thought the big guy could ever get, then dropping the ball through his fingers into the waiting hands of a Laos crumber. Dan Kindness played a great game in the back lines and ran the ball out well all day. Pot Hole had a dozen or more very effective touches and run rings around them in the centre as did Matt the backpacker. It was a great team effort however and if this was U13’s the line in the Sunday papers would have proudly read “All played well”

For Lao, they also had several good players who were competitive all day, none who did better than the Swans choice for the Elephants best player, Big Bad Bruce, who kept the forwards of Willy and Gus busy all day and only giving up 1 goal. Others to play well for Laos were Wil and Mick Hassett who does pretty good for an old bugger.

As to the off-field performance, Pot Hole lead the way all weekend and Gus ended up with Bob…….but that’s another story!