Southern Dragons' President, Tri, presents Vietnam Swans' President, Phil Johns, with a Dragons jumper in Melbourne, July 2010. the jumper has been framed and now hangs on the wall at Tommy's Bar, Vung Tau.

It has just been announced that the Vietnam Swans will play Melbourne’s Southern Dragons on 7 January, 2012 at RMIT University in Saigon.

The Southern Dragons is a footy club in Melbourne that is mostly made up of players of Asian descent – especially Vietnamese descent.

In April 2010, two of the Dragons, Johnny and Pee, attended a Swannies training session in Saigon.

Three months later, Swannies Fabbo and Damo attended a Dragons’ training session in Melbourne (which was bleeding freezing!).

The Southern Dragons’ President, Tri, presented the Swannies’ President with one of their Club’s jumpers (which now hangs on the wall of Tommy’s Bar in Vung Tau). Damo  kicked on and actually played a game for the Dragons.

In the same month, the Dragons also attended the function at the MCG with the Swannies, Vietnam Veterans and Sydney Swans.

In February of this year, the AFL featured the Southern Dragons in a short video called Diverse tastes of local football. See the video on You Tube.

In August, the Southern Dragons won the Transport Accident Commission’s My Blood Oath competition – and picked up a lazy $30,000!

John Hong from the Dragons said that they expected 12 players to make the Saigon tour.

The Vietnam Swans will be delighted to welcome the Southern Dragons, as a team, to Saigon.  Developing the links between our two clubs is a very, very good thing.