Not everyone can play in an AFL Grand Final. Or an ANZAC Friendship Match.

“My name is Lindsay Gillbee. And I am now a retired AFL footballer.

“I finally reached my childhood dream to be there on Grand Final Day. The problem is, I was sitting in a car and I wasn’t playing.

“I played more games than I can remember on the MCG. But going around the boundary line that day, waving to the crowd, it hit me like a ton of bricks that I will never get to run out there on Grand Final Day.”

To be eligible for the Vietnam Swans ANZAC Squad, among other things, a player must be a resident of Vietnam.

Hewy played in last year’s ANZAC Friendship Match and returned to Australia. Tomorrow, he is back in Vung Tau and, therefore, will run out onto the turf of the Lord Mayor’s Oval in the Legends and All Stars Match.

Tomorrow, will be the last time that some Vietnam Swans players will be eligible for the ANZAC Friendship Match. Our Skipper, Dukesy, is among them.

The video above is from (Sydney) Swans TV: Dreaming of Grand Final glory. It opens with Lindsay Gilbee sitting an empty warehouse explaining that he will never have the opportunity to play in an AFL Grand Final again. It then cuts to pre 2012 Grand Final addresses by coaches Longmire and Clarkson. Then there is actual footage form last year’s AFL Grand Final.

As Clarke “Crackers” Keating once told us Swannies in the lead up to our first Asian Champs: There is no next week. It’s today. It’s now.”

Click here to watch the 9 minute video, Dreaming of Grand Final glory.