L, Sam at the 2012 ANZAC Friendship Match. R, Sam says farewell to the Swannies.
Last Friday night, the Swannies farewelled a true club champion, Saigon President, Sam Conroy. Sam, together with Ms Ha, will fly out to the USA to start a new job in Atlanta.
Sam was one of the original District 2 Crew. He would go running umpteen times per week to improve his fitness with two other key Swannies who have since moved on, Dez Limbrick (former Saigon Prez) and Danny Armstrong (former Treasurer).
Sam, off the field, was the guy who just made stuff happen. Drinks, eskies, footy kit etc would just magically appear (and now Kyle Hackenberg does a magnificent job doing these things). Providing storage, moving it around HCMC, getting gear to overseas tournaments/matches etc was never too much trouble while the rest of us were mostly oblivious to the amount of work required to keep things happening.
Sam is a no nonsense character. There is obviously a time to talk – but, equally obviously, Sam just doesn’t know when that is. Talking just gets in the way of getting things done.
On the field, he was incredibly annoying – one of those backmen who just loves standing on his opponent’s feet. Tenacious, determined and fit. There were no easy kicks against Sam.
In Sam’s farewell speech on Friday night he said that he “never, ever wanted to be taken off the Swannies’ email list”. That’s lucky. Because he’s on that list for life!
A measure of success for any club is knowing that the club has strengthened during your time there. And this is absolutely true with Sam. When he first arrived in Saigon, we only had 10 people at training if we were lucky. But it’s not just the number of people on the paddock.
At our Saigon President’s farewell on Friday, in the crowd were Peter and Lorraine – parents in law of Swannie and sponsor (Aussie Home Loans), Mark Greenshields who left Vietnam a couple of years ago. Peter and Lorraine, in Vietnam for a holiday, were thrilled to catch up with the Swannies and mentioned that Mark and wife, Kylie often speak of their time with the Swannies.
Yesterday at training in Saigon, we welcomed five new recruits: two from Ireland, one from Vietnam, one from Korea and one from Australia.
Last night, a text was received from Dave Kainey who left Vietnam seven years ago. At last month’s Asian Champs in Thailand, Dave bought a number of Swannies shirts (by the way, who took the shirts to Thailand? Sammy, of course). Dave’s text message read:
Wore Swannies shirts to golf and also when watching footy this week – people love ’em. No need for cologne.
As is the tradition, we gave Sam a farewell trophy with the inscription, “You can leave the Club. But not the country. Honk!”
Sam, from everyone at the Swannies, North and South, in country and ex country, thank you for everything. You have been an absolute sensation. Everyone wishes you the very best in your next chapter.
Wherever you may go, Go you Swannies!
