The Viet Celts play Auskick with the Vietnamese kids as a tribute to Willy's mother.

The Vietnam Swans received the email below from Jim Kiernan of the Viet Celts Gaelic Football Club  in Hanoi. The email was sent on 23 April – the day of the ANZAC Friendship Match and just two days after Willy’s mother passed away.

On behalf of the Viet Celts, just a few words wishing the Swans the best of luck today against the Hong Kong Dragons in Vung Tau (in the ANZAC Friendship Match).

I met Willy and the Swans for a few drinks on Thursday before Willy headed for home. Willy spoke about his mother’s love of South Adelaide and also coming down to watch him play in the juniors every Saturday.

Yesterday, as a tribute to Mrs Williams, I did half a training session in Aussie Rules with the new U13 team of Vietnamese kids that I’ve been training for the past eight weeks in Gaelic Football, here at the Vietnam Australia School (VAS) in My Dinh.

They were quite good at transferring their Gaelic Football skills once they came to grips with the bounce of the Sherrin. It also tied in well with ANZAC weekend.

We used a set of modified rules that myself, Stanno, Adrian and Crazy Dan devised a few weeks ago for playing Aussie Rules on astroturf. Some photos provided with the Sherrin and the O’Neills. Big Jon Holden from Australia has been helping me out with this team and we hope to do this type of split Gaelic Football/Aussie Rules session again with the Vietnamese kids.

Footnote: On 14 May 2011, Saigon will host the South East Asian Gaelic Football Championships and the Vietnam Swans will support the Vietnamese sides.