Stephen Drummond - plenty of video footage for the review of the ANZAC Friendship Weekend, sang the New Zealand national anthem - and then found Paul Greene to sing the Australian national anthem.

Stephen Drummond – plenty of video footage for the review of the ANZAC Friendship Weekend, sang the New Zealand national anthem – and then found Paul Greene to sing the Australian national anthem.

National President, Phil Johns, attempts to thank all the people who made the 2013 ANZAC Friendship Match such a success.

Firstly, I would like to thank the Jakarta Bintangs for making the journey and congratulations to them for taking the ANZAC Friendship Shield.

To our guys, in both the Legends and ANZAC matches, well done and thank you for the couple of amazing games that were played. While we can’t guarantee the outputs, we can the inputs. The inputs, especially the dedication and commitment were outstanding.

Of course, in addition to the players, to feed such an event, we needed a long supply line. Below, on behalf of our Hanoi and Saigon Presidents, I will try to acknowledge and thank those who helped to make the 2013 ANZAC Friendship Weekend such a success. Inevitably, with so many people doing so many one per centers to help, I will have missed people. Probably plenty of people – so please make sure that you thank the people that you know about.

In no particular order, here’s my attempt to acknowledge all those who helped make the weekend such a success:

  • International SOS. Provided invaluable expert medical support, on multiple occasions, during the day. As per usual they provided an excellent service. (International SOS was also in attendance at Thursday’s ANZAC Dawn Service at the Long Tan Cross.)
  • Glenn & Trang Nolan, Tommy’s Bar and staff. Organised official permits, maintenance on the ground, mower and sprinklers, unending promotion, food and beverages on the day etc etc etc. Unbelievable support.
  • Ron Vernon. Countless hours mowing the lawn on the Lord Mayor’s Oval from 6 weeks prior to the match. Addressed players, presented shields etc etc.
  • Ray Richardson and Richo’s XI. Played a cricket match in Vung Tau last year on 19 August. From Australia, raised enough money to purchase a people mover’s vehicle for the Vung Tau Orphanage, a ride on mower and sprinklers. The mower and sprinklers were used – and were essential – for getting the ground into such good condition this year.
  • Bill Crang and Ms Yen who were the catalyst for shifting the McMillan Dinner to the 5 star Imperial Hotel which lifted the status and prestige of the Dinner (incidentally, the Imperial Hotel has already ben confirmed and booked for next year’s McMilland DInner on 26 April 2014)
  • Rowan Luke. The Swannies’ Treasurer and No. 1 Organiser who did a massive amount of behind the scenes work to ensure that, on the surface, it appeared the duck was swimming smoothly.
  • Matt Townsend. Gun player in the ANZAC Squad and Asia’s most professional and witty MC who covered the formalities of the day and the evening.
  • Ross McRae Design. Ah McRae, you’ve done it again! Artwork for banners, tickets, posters, trophies, merchandise – and then the mountain of work for the monster 64-page edition of the ANZAC Footy Record. As if that wasn’t enough, he also continued as a photographer for the ANZAC Match after dislocating his shoulder in the Legends Match.
  • Janice Williams. From Water Safety Vietnam, returned for the second year to provide physio support, water bottles etc.
  • Paul Koch, Kev Hornblower, Mark Stennett, Cam Luke and Mark. Organised and executed the most efficient method yet for the distribution of membership packs to the players.
  • Mr My, Mr Tu and Thien, owners of the Dog Track who are incredibly supportive and helpful in welcoming our ANZAC Friendship Match each year. They also attended the McMillan Dinner with the Chairwoman of the Ba Ria Vung Tau People’s Committee and General Director of the Vung Tau Tourism Commission.
  • Adam McDonald, field umpire for the ANZAC Friendship Match. Adam is a 200 game AFL boundary umpire who has also umpired two ANZAC Day matches at the MCG.
  • Rod Gillett (Rocket) and Danny Armstrong. Field umpires for the Legends Match
  • All boundary and goal umpires for the two matches
  • Hewy (Newcastle) (coach of Legends team and runner for ANZAC match)), Flyer (Singapore) (time keeper, scoreboard attendant, presenter of Kainey Cup), Qui (Adelaide) (Legends player), Danny Armstrong (Shanghai) (umpire for Legends match) and Tim Clemens (returning after stints in Hong Kong and Thailand) (player Legends and organised the siren) – are all ex residents – and all returned specifically for the weekend.
  • To all non-resident occasional players such as Cameron Luke, Mark, Brad Vernon (player Legends and sound technician at the ground), Tim Pickert who returned.
  • To all non players who returned such as Ron & Ailsa Vernon, Dave Luke – and many others (but I will stop this list now before I get smashed…)

    Chris, a goal umpire in the Southern Football League, volunteers his time to support the ANZAC Friendship Weekend.

    Chris, a goal umpire in the Southern Football League, volunteers his time to support the ANZAC Friendship Weekend.

  • Stephen Spielberg Drummond who is doing another ANZAC Friendship Match Documentary as well as singing the NZ national anthem and finding someone for the Australian anthem.
  • Paul Greene who sung the Australian anthem and writes, “As I have been saying ever since that day, It was an absolute honor to represent my country in song, and also to do my bit for the Vietnam Swans.”
  • Ms Nhi, Ms Kim and Ms Van for singing the Vietnamese national anthems
  • Ray Malree, a Vietnam Veteran, for reciting the Ode
  • The Australian Consul General, John McAnulty for delivering the welcome address at the ground and staying for the entire match.
  • Tony, Annette (Dave O’Shea’s parents) and all the other water runners who did their utmost to keep players in both games hydrated throughout the day.
  • Graeme Kirk who assisted with the line marking of the ground.
  • Stan Middleton, official historian for the Vietnam Football League, for delivering the Middleton Address in the evening and having been such an active and productive champion of the ANZAC Friendship Match since its inception since 2010.
  • Dave McMillan and the entire McMillan family who made the effort to come to Vung Tau for the match and the McMillan Dinner in the evening.
  • Each of the 26 contributors who wrote articles specifically for the ANZAC Friendship Match’s footy record. Also, to the guys who helped write player profiles.
  • Richard “Johno” Johnston, dual VFL premiership player (1968) who attended the match and sat on the panel, with Paul, to pick the best player on the ground. For auction, Johno also brought a West Coast footy jumper and a footy which were both signed by the entire West Coast team. Thank you to West Coast! In addition, he brought timber jewellery boxes, pens and wine boxes that he has made himself. Note: with the exception of the West Coast jumper, these items are still available to purchase for charity – see attached photo. Johno has been a passionate supporter of Swim Vietnam in Hoi An.
  • Sue and Ray Pascoe (Heater’s Uncle and Aunt) who organised two Brisbane Lions jumpers (signed by Brown and Voss) through Brisbane’s Craig Starcevich and Paul McConnell (who both played a match against the then Hanoi Swans in October 2007). They also brought over a Penrith Panthers jumper signed by the team. Note: one Lions jumper and the Penrith jumper are still available to purchase for charity – see attached photo.

    Cameron Luke organised $3,000 of supplies to be donated to the Long Hai Orphanage (part of Vung Tau Orphanage). All the supplies were laid out on stage with a banner and we were treated to two dance numbers in costumes the kids had made themselves. Truly an amazing experience that we should all enjoy some time."

    Cameron Luke organised $3,000 of supplies to be donated to the Long Hai Orphanage (part of Vung Tau Orphanage). All the supplies were laid out on stage with a banner and we were treated to two dance numbers in costumes the kids had made themselves. Truly an amazing experience that we should all enjoy some time.”

  • Tim Hall from University of West Sydney who organised the GWS jumper signed by GWS. Note: this jumper is still available to purchase for charity.
  • MJ and Trenter for organising trophies for Legends Match. Trenter was also a photographer doing it all on crutches after having some chronic issues with his knees in recent times.
  • Alex Leonard. He’s Hanoi’s secretary and, even though he was not coming to Vung Tau, he did a great amount of work to ensure that all the logistics were organised for the Hanoi boys. Alex and his family narrowly escaped from a jet that fell short of the runway in Myanmar recently. The Vietnam Swans salute Alex’s courage and are humbled by his commitment to the Club.
  • Mr Duc drove down to Vung Tau very early on Saturday morning in a Ford Explorer that had enough Swannies gear in it to fill a truck! He returned to Saigon the following day, thankfully, with substantially less gear in the car!
  • Andy Glendinning, Luke Creamer, David Skowronski and Nick Shiells for taking on the thankless task of selecting the ANZAC Squad.
  • Paul Koch, Nathan Milner, Trenter and MJ for being passionate about the Legends match to ensure its billing also continues to grow each year
  • Chris Butler, Jamie Rossall and Ross Munn who, although weren’t there on the day, are active members of the committee that is responsible for overseeing the organisation of the event and for making additional resources available.
  • Ray Low who collected donations at the entrance to the ground.
  • Adam, Matt, Pat, Jada, Vy and Buddy who worked tirelessly on the Swannies’ merchandise table all day.
  • Our sponsors and advertisers who supported the ANZAC Footy Record
  • Kyle, Dukes, Dave O’Shea who organised footies, whistles vests, sox etc for the day
  • Shag for helping get ferry tickets to all the people who flew into Saigon on the Friday evening
  • Each of the Hanoi tourers who made the effort to get down to Vung Tau: Dan Hopkins, Matt Carr, David Skowronski, Ales Lewis (a first gamer for the Swannies who writes, “What a great Club! I felt part of the team as soon as I arrived in Vung Tau and it was a real honour to be playing in the side on such a day.”), Brewster Craven MJ (from Hanoi), Matt Townsend and Laura Ward.
  • Cameron Luke from Lagler Australia who raised $3,000 in Australia which he donated to the Centre for Protection of Children (part of the Vung Tau Orphanage).
  • Imperial Hotel which provided an outstanding venue for the McMillan Dinner (now booked in for 2014)
  • Special mentions to Tra Vy, Damo Ballantine and Chris Butler who were struck with injury/sickness which prevented them from fully participating in the weekend.

Thank you to all those people. Thank you to the people I should have listed but overlooked. Thank you to all the people who did little things that were great things which I never even knew about.

As you can see from the above, to get the team on the ground, there’s a massive team effort off the ground.

Go you Swannies!!