To kick off the 2025 season the Swannies men arrived in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to face the warriors who had begun their season in the weeks prior with a trip to Cambodia. With players arriving anywhere from a week in advance to midnight the day before the game you could already see green shoots of dedication from this motley crew! 

Alongside the fellas, despite the Swans women not being able to muster a team, came new Hanoi addition Nicola Worsley and Saigon’s own Beth Rebbeck who would spend the morning sweating it out on opposite sides of the ball in a Warriors Women scratch match.

With players all arrived in the country and anticipation high for the weekend it was left to none other than Swannies touring legend Timothy Pickert laid down the rules for a quiet night and a curfew ahead of what would be a testing opener the next day. The rest of the playing cohort eagerly waited to see if this was a rule the man himself would be able to keep to!

Having arrived at the pitch ahead of the majority of the warriors Warner “Lovechild of Lyon” McMahon assumed responsibility for the board and started to get to work organizing his troops. Despite not having the lackadaisical drawl or charisma of a sloth that his idol is endowed with he compensated well throughout with a rousing jee up before the game and astute and timely rotations throughout.

Going into a game of 20 minute quarters with 14 on and 2 rotations vs the home team with 8 on the sideline was never going to be easy but the lads were up for the challenge. In the first quarter the Swannies fellas saw plenty of the ball and occupied the midfield and Warriors defensive 50 scoring 2 goals 3, while some impressive work from the combination of Cam “the self appointed General” and Ryan “The Colonel” Tishler across halfback restricted the Warriors to 0 goals 3. 

In the second quarter the Warriors clawed 2 goals back taking advantage of some uncharacteristic confusion in the backline and allowing the Warriors not so stealthy unit Matt Straus to sneak in for 2 goals. The lads added two of their own goals through Will “The” Sandman and 1st gamer Fitzy but with profligacy in front of goal was an issue with an additional 4 behinds making it Swans 4.7. Warriors 2.3 at the interval.

After the restart the Swannies picked up from where they left off with Tim Pickert rolling back the clock and effortless pinging a goal from 40 meters. Sadly though swans lost 2 men leaving them with only the 14 on the field. John “toe tag” Do went down to a broken nose having had a rip snorter to that point chasing down warriors and winning a lot of contested possessions. Second man down was Tony Fulton, making his swans debut while touring the region doing a hamstring and calf all in the same move! Though the warriors got a goal back they also managed to find more of the points post and with Sandman hitting the scoreboard kept the swans truly ahead.

The Warriors would’ve fancied a comeback with the swans thin but after some good initial pressure big man Jono Mackay rattled the scoreboard and put an end to any lingering warriors hopes. With fellow big fella Spencer “I’m not ginger” Whittaker doing what he did all day, presenting, marking and being a general menace the swans were able to comfortably see out the rest of the game.

Final whistle sounded and cheers rung out the inaugural “curtain raiser cup” in their hands it was time for swans to sample the warriors hospitality and boy they didn’t disappoint with a few of the Swannies looking well and truly dusty the morning after!

Looking forward to the next one already!

Honk!