At the 2007 Asian Champs, Gus McEwin had 5 minutes with the Flyer. Today, it's Neil Bradshaw's turn

Today, Dave “Flyer” Kainey starts a new segment for the Swannies Blog. He invites former players who have left Vietnam to spend five minutes with him. Today, the Flyer catches up with Neil Bradshaw.

Neil and Angela Bradshaw left Hanoi at the end of 2005 with the two kids in tow. They spent the next three years in Canberra while their daughter, Frances, finished high school. At the start of 2009 with son, George, 17, about to go into his last year of school, they moved to Bangkok. Frances has just turned 20 (crikey) and is doing Law / Arts at ANU.

I asked Neil the following questions:

1. What are your early memories of the Hanoi (Vietnam) Swans?

Friday night Bloods Panel, initially at Jaac’s (now Jaspas), then it moved to Pepperonis on Hang Hanh St when Mick Francis ran the restaurant. Rick Trawavas and Wayne Tinlin (talking shite about Port) were also there, drinking beer, and then watching the footy when Australia Asia Pacific TV (now Australia Network) used to carry the Friday night match of the week. We also did the planning for setting up a team, getting fit, training etc etc – then I attended one or two training sessions at the paddock until it got too hard for my fitness level.

2. Tell me about the setting up of ‘Dead Cat (Hoang Cau) Stadium’ as an initial training base after being based on the paddock next to the Australian Embassy in Hanoi?

Twilight training on the paddock next to the Embassy on Dao Tan St (the corner site opposite the Daewoo Hotel where they are currently building the 65 storey Lotte Centre) was pretty funny due to the parlous state of the ‘pitch’ and the only place I ever really trained with the Swans – I have a vague recollection that there was also a training session or two at the Van Phuc field opposite the former UNIS campus (now Uniworld) on Van Bao.

By the time of the big move to ‘Dead Cat’ Stadium, I was pretty engrossed in setting up and running the Australian Mullets Softball Club and beating the Americans. We started playing softball at Dead Cat at around the same time the Swans moved their training base there – Anh Phi from UNIS helped us to set up bookings for the ground each week for Sunday games and was a great help.

3. The Inaugural International (Tri-Nations) against Hong Kong and Thailand at the Industrial Park was where it started for the Club. How was the day for you?

Neil Bradshaw takes a screamer for the Bloods at the Thanh Long Industrial Park in 2003

I remember being very impressed with how the guys (Mick Francis I think was instrumental in organising this) got that ground at Thang Long Industrial Park together with the posts etc – really looked great. I was late getting to the Swans first game against Hong Kong and saw the last Quarter or so.

I then pulled Coach Bubbles aside and told him he should put me in for Potsy at Full Forward – as a big game player. Potsy was obviously not too happy about this – and so I ran on for a quarter and a half in the second game against the Tigers. I did bugger-all in that game, except eventually took a mark when the opposition was looking the other way, but missed the set shot for a behind… I did scramble a goal at the other end in the third term though. See the photo attached of the mark I took which your readers can make up their own minds about. I remember Ryan Jeffrey posted this photo on the original (Hanoi) Swans website which he set up soon after he left Hanoi to go back to Melbourne.

I remember I felt a bit uncomfortable throwing on the guernsey given I had not attended any of the preparatory training sessions – it was Murray Lott who got me out there on the day, a rugby man who played his first ever game of ‘Rules’ but was a terrier around the packs. I remember also Jarrod Dale in particular looked the business as B.O.G for the Bloods.

The Hanoi Mulletts

4. You played a major role in setting up ‘The Mullets’ softball team, another great sporting team in Hanoi, I believe you had a few Swans on the list? How did they perform?

Yes we set up the Hanoi International Softball league during my time which was a lot of fun. I’ve

The Mulletts

attached a photo of our winning Mullets side which beat the Yanks (19-18 I think in extra innings) in the final in the inaugural year (2003/4) of the competition. Instrumental in that memorable win on the day were Swans list players Dave Kainey, Mike Growder, Brett Farmer and Jarrod Dale. Scott Stacey was a regular in setting up the Mullets and in the winning season and was deeply disappointed to be in HCMC on the day of the final. Mick Francis played a fair bit in the early days of the Mullets, particularly when we used to play at the Van Phuc field against the Septics. Another Mullets regular – and as keen and dedicated to his softball as to all his interests – was Justin ‘Pumper’ Hart, a master of the ‘takeout slide’ into First Base.

5. Finally, your thoughts on the 2010 AFL season? The premier team? A team that will surprise as a finals contender? A media headline that will be bigger than that mark you took in 2004 at the Industrial Park?

I was pretty disillusioned early on after the Crows lost six in a row. No big surprise in the finals I expect with the strength of the top 4/5 teams, and Geelong and Saints so dominant in particular. I think it will be St Kilda’s year, but I’d love to see the Crows sneak in (despite our usual tough run to the finals having to play all the top sides from the previous year)… that would make a good headline I reckon. And as I write they’ve just beat the Cats at Footie Park so maybe they finally believe they can do it… I think they have a great list, and are certainly good enough to play finals footy this year if they can keep it all together.

Go the Bloods! Best of success to the Club, which has come an amazingly long way since the early days.

Thanks Neil for spending ‘5 Minutes with The Flyer’