Dave O’Shea, the man who never gets writer’s block, applies a brilliant block on the HMAS Sydney crew in last night’s blockbuster at RMIT University in Saigon.

Swannies’ superstar, Dave O’Shea, returns with some brilliant prose about yesterday’s twilight blockbuster between the Swannies and HMAS Sydney.

On the day, Dave’s play was as good as his writing and accordingly, he picked up HMAS Sydney’s BOG Award.

BLOODS SWEAT AND CHEERS FOR SWANNIES IN RMIT TWILIGHT BLOCKBUSTER!

Last night, the Swannies overcame a very determined and physical HMAS Sydney Navy outfit to win the match by 11 points. The match was a struggle all afternoon with both teams failing to take advantage of some great play. Perhaps the blustery twilight conditions were the reasons for both teams missing countless opportunities in front of goals. Vietnam kicked 7 goals 12 whereas the visiting Sydney HMAS Navy team kicked 6 goals 7.

The Swans went into quarter time with a decent lead, however the scoreboard flattered us a little as Sydney had plenty of the ball but missed a number of set shots. The Swannies took their opportunities in the first quarter with goals from Dukesy, Mega Bretta and myself. At the quarter time break, we knew that we would have to play better to get over the top of the Navy.

The second quarter was a real scrap fest. Both teams were ferocious at the ball and defence was proving stronger than attack as both teams were struggling to score. Heater and Nat Payne were doing a superb job down back and were cutting off everything the Navy sent forward. Qui and Marty were coming into their own in the forward line and providing great targets for the Swannies midfielders.

Heater, seen here, later “miraculously pounced on a loose ball and snapped a brilliant goal to give the Swannies an 11 point lead.”

The Swannies were able to hold onto their lead going into half time, however were unable to extend it.

The Navy came out firing in the third quarter and scored 3 unanswered goals. With a huge ruckman, they were dominating out of the middle and the Swannies would need to make some adjustments in order to stop the Navy run. By the end of the quarter the Swannies lead was reduced to only 3 points. We knew that we would have to give the last quarter everything we had in order to get the win.

At three quarter time, the light all of a sudden faded and this meant that we had to play the 4^th quarter in the dark. With local knowledge of the ground and boundaries, these conditions no doubt favoured the Swannies. The quarter was played similarly to the way the whole match was played. It was a hard and tight battle. Mega Bretta kicked a controversial goal which looked like a behind and this gave the swannies some breathing space with a lead of 11 points. The Navy hit back to reduce the Swannies lead to only 5 with 5 minutes to play. With time running out, both teams were looking for a sealer and it was superstar Swanny, Heater who miraculously pounced on a loose ball and snapped a brilliant goal to give the Swannies an 11 point lead. After this the scores did not change and the Swannies were able to grind out a hard fought win.

With only a week and a bit to the Indochina Cup in Hanoi, we hope the bruised and battered Swannies’ bodies are able to recover in time so we will be at our best against Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.

The Swannies now lead the series against the Royal Australian Navy for the Phoenix Cup Perpetual Trophy 4 games to nil.

To see photos of the match, click here.