Excerpt from induction by Bill Crang at the 2023 McMillan Dinner:
I’ve seen alot of people get these honours, and I can safely say this is one of the top few most deserving Life Memberships the club has ever handed out.
Technically the life member membership is meant for someone who has put in around 5 years of exceptional effort to the footy club. In actual fact this person has put in 10 or more years and it’s only the fact that some complications including family and work have reduced his time as a resident here in Vietnam that this hasn’t happened earlier.
But despite all that, at no time did that stop his contribution to our footy club. From that first day a random third party introduction in Phnom Penh led to him pulling on our jumper, this bloke has been as bigger part of this footy club as anyone.
Even through so many years not able to reside here in Vietnam he was able to be a club sponsor a regular tourer, one of our best players and always one of the heart-beats of the footy club.
It’s kind of good that its taken this long, because as we’re doing this here tonight this guy has taken his contribution to the swans to a whole new level. He is seeing to it that our club not only remains respected but grows into one of if not the most respected clubs in the land. It’s been fantastic to watch!
I’ve known this for a long time but now every single one of our men’s players knows that this bloke is one of the very best mates you could ever have in life. He’s drawing this playing group into something really special and he should be really proud of that because it’s a mirror of his own selfless energy.
Today was a challenge, not so much today but the week leading up where the very best light plans were absolutely destroyed. We got through it, it wasn’t a single handed effort, but our latest Life member’s effort made a lot of the difference to not only save our club’s biggest and best event for the year but to ensure it has been an outstanding part of a year that promises to be the best ever.
Whether you’ve been at this club 10 days or 10 years I think it’s pretty clear who I’m talking about… Coach Timmy Pickett must be and now is a life member of the Vietnam swans, congratulations Timmy!!!