The Swannies team that did so well at the 2012 Asian Champs in Thailand.

The Swannies last match in last year’s Champs was played against the Singapore Wombats in teh semi final; and they kept us scoreless. In this year’s Asian Champs in Thailand, we again faced Singapore, the reigning Champs. Micky “MJ” Johnston reports.

After an exclusive 5-star sunrise tour of outer Pattaya with the Long-Way-Home-In-A-31-seater-Magic-Carpet-Ride-Bus-Company led by Jesus, the Thailand tour guide and his 12 massage apostles, 25 Swannies and a handful of supporters alighted at the footy player’s equivalent of Nirvana disguised as the Royal Equestrian and Polo Club grounds outside of Pattaya.

National Anthems were played and sung, sunscreen was applied and we prepared to face last year’s nemesis, the Singapore Wombats.  They kept us scoreless in the 2011 semi-final, so this was sort of like playing a double header with a year in between matches.

Run throughs, stretches and tactical talks helped to settle the nerves and we hit the first bounce hard.  The Swans had come to play as tackle after tackle from our backline and centres dispossessed the Wombats.  A couple of minutes into the first half, a chain of handpasses and a towering mark allowed Revo to slot the first goal and the Swans were away.

The first half was all Swans, as we ran, tackled and talked.  Dukesy’s late goal was the result of more hard work from the backline.  Heater, Nat Payne & Phil Ghasseb were impassable at Half Back, while Sam Conroy, Damo Judd and cDan Hopkins never gave their forwards a sniff.

As expected, the Wombats came out snuffling hard do at the start of the second half, but were unable to bridge the gap.

Edo showed how much his game has come on by continually doing hard work on the ground to feed the ball out to the runners.  Gus did a great half volley pick-up that had the crowd “ooohing”, and SOS kept on presenting as a leading and marking option up forward.  Resplendent in his new boots, Jotta continued to tackle and play “catch me if you can”.

It was more a sigh of relief than a resounding cheer that greeted the final siren with the Swans ahead by 5 points: Another Swannies demon expunged at Nirvana – Honk!

To see a handful of photos from the 2012 Asian Champs, click here.