Swannie, John Shoulder, seen swinging here at the Legends and All Stars Match in April, writes about last weekend’s South Asian Gaelic Championships in Thailand.

Last weekend, the South Asian Gaelic Football Championships were held in Pattaya, Thailand and a contingent of Swannies from the north and the south were there.

Swannie, John Shoulder from Hanoi, reports on what happened with the round Gaelic ball.

Similar to great Renaissance men of all ages, or those who excel and prove their worth in a variety of fields, a true Swannie is sure to become the master of any endeavor he undertakes.

This certainly proved to be the case last weekend at the South Asian Gaelic Championships in Pattaya, where two Vietnamese sides, heavy with Swan ties, the Saigon Gaels and the Hanoi Viet Celts showed extremely well for themselves and took significant steps towards developing Gaelic football in Vietnam.

Perhaps, particularly impressive was the showing of the Saigon Gaels, a club that had more or less been left for dead leading up to the tournament, but was resurrected in the final week largely through the efforts of John Redmond and his compatriot, Irish Brian of the Swans.

Despite being thrown together at the last minute, and showing up to the pitch an hour late on Saturday reeking of Red Bull, the Saigon squad, quickly established itself as a formidable foe. It pushed our much more experienced Hanoi side to the brink in the first match of the tournament and then won its next two matches against Shanghai/Taiwan and the Malaysia based Orange Eire B side.

Billy Crang boots the round ball away at the Gaelic Championships in Thailand last week.

Boasting a backline that included stout Swans Brian and Phil, a forward line that included the skillful John Redmond and the imposing Billy Crang, and a midfield driven by Swannie jets Josh Murray and Dave O’Shea, the Gaels generally dominated the ball in their games and demonstrated the smooth passing and physical play that one might expect from a Swans-dominated side.

Unfortunately due to a case of cold kicking (blame it on the round ball), the Geals were bested by Thailand in their fourth game in a contest they largely dominated.  Being a resilient lot though, the team recovered to soundly beat the Orange Eire B side yet again in the tournaments fifth place game and finish with a positive record of 3 wins and 2 losses and Dave O’Shea garnering mention as one of the tournament’s top performers.

The tournament was a similarly successful affair for our Hanoi Viet Celt side, as led by our Captain Tamey Piper, former Swan Dan Coloe and the incomparable Jim Kiernan (one of the few men whose legend in Hanoi rivals that of our esteemed Swans’ Hanoi President, Daniel Hopkins), our somewhat misfit (boasting players hailing from 7 countries and three continents) but scrappy side recorded our best ever finish, beating Thailand to earn the plate final and third place in the tournament.

The win was perhaps especially sweet for us given that we had been edged by Thailand by one point earlier in the day and knew we could show better.  In addition to the standouts mentioned above, Dave Cunningham and Luke Kenny also put in stellar performances in our final match which saw us really come together as a team and play our best football of the day.

All in all, I think all involved would agree that it was a great day for the Swans in Pattaya and it was another tour which could only be described, in the words of the top Swannie, as MEGA.

*** Photos of the tournament can be viewed by clicking here.

The Hanoi Viet Celts and the Saigon Gaels.