Mickey Francis in the Bobby Skilton Room of Pepperonis in Hanoi, 2001..

One of the original boys from Pepperonis back in 2001, Justin “Pumper” Hart, responds to the National President’s email in the preceding post, the success of the Swannies at the 2011 Champs and the role of Mickey Francis.

This kind of success is only something we could’ve dreamt about in 2001… Congratulations to you (Phil Johns, National President) and the rest of the Swannies on a fantastic achievement…

I was also delighted to see you mention Mick Francis… The reality is that if he hadn’t have allowed Pepperonis to be the focal point of Aussie footy (in Hanoi) back in 2001, we would’ve never reached this point…

He promoted the game from his restaurant, showed the footy every Friday night, brought together The Panel (that involved drop kicks like Bubbles, Potsy and yours truly), organised Grand Final celebrations and brought us small band of merry men together to start organising games (first played in 2003).

From that comes what we have now.

I dip my hat to Mick, whom I think is the only surviving original member of the Swans still living in VN. A marvellous legacy Mick has left and still gives us.

Feeling proud here in Oz, Pumper.