Stan Middleton (far right) pictured with Ossie and John Carey at the Noble Park RSL Club last month.

Stan Middleton is a great friend of the Vietnam Swans and the official historian of the Vietnam Football League. Below he responds to the 2011 ANZAC Friendship Match.

Hi Vietnam Swans

Great to hear of the response to my article that appeared in the footy record at the ANZAC Friendship Match!

I have sent a soft copy of the Footy Record onto heaps of Vietnam Veterans and I am getting a lot of excellent responses.

I think our history during the war ties in beautifully with what the Vietnam Swans do now! Well done to the Vietnam Swans for embracing us!

Very happy to hear you have modelled the Friendship Trophy on our old shield from the War (see here for photo of original shield). We are very proud to know that! The photo you put up with Kevin Back & Bob McKenna holding the shield was excellent. We had just got home from Bob’s brother’s home when I received it! We had a BBQ there with about nine of the former 2AOD footballers (including Bob). Sadly Kevin Back died of a massive heart attack in 2003. I have emailed his widow with the article that included the photo.

Sounds like the game went well and good to hear the Swannies won!

ANZAC Day went very well here in Melbourne apart from Collingwood winning. However we did scare them and the 2 goals they kicked in the last minute of the game did not reflect how close we got to them!

Went on Tuesday as well but Hawks failed after a good start. Got one of the Vets into the Hawks room before the game and he was rapt! (through John Kilpatrick from the Swim Program).

I have kept a copy of the Footy record with Ossie’s story in it for you (see a soft copy here). Hope you have some hard copies of the the Vung Tau record for me! I will get Ossie back to Noble Park RSL to talk about the ANZAC weekend in Vietnam.

Also hope you met Jan Williams who has joined our Vietnam Swim group. I think she was one of your trainers for the game in Vung Tau. She is a real goer!

Glenn Nolan is coming to Noble Park RSL this week which will be excellent! (Ossie visited Noble Park RSL just prior to coming to Vietnam)

Regards, Stan & Sinh

Footnote: The Swing to Swim Charity Golf Day shall be played at Montgomerie Links on 14 May 2011.