The Vietnam Swans are excited to celebrate 20 years as the country’s Australian Rules Football club in April and throughout 2026! We look forward to celebrating this momentous achievement and all the people who made it possible with Swannies (and friends) past, present and future!
- Where: Vung Tau
- When: Weekend of April 18th 2026
The weekend of April 18th will see the Vietnam Swans return to Vung Tau for the annual Anzac Day Friendship Matches and a celebration of 2 decades of all things Swannies!
In the week leading up to the Friendship match, there will be opportunities for people to get together, reminisce and sink a few cold frothies over some entertaining yarns! Keep an eye on this site and on our Facebook page for details as they emerge. We would love to see as many former Swannies throughout the period to celebrate the many incredible chapters the club has enjoyed. If you can make it we’d love for you to let us know here.
On the day itself we look forward to welcoming two clubs with whom the Swannies have and have had good relations in the form of the Malaysian Warriors and Singapore Wombats / Wombettes (gameday fixtures announced in due course) which will provide plenty of opportunities for former and current Swannies to don the club colours once again. We will also provide VIP areas for all past Swans not wanting to take the field to reminisce, tell a few stories about how great they were back in the day and enjoy the festivities once again. The McMillan Dinner and Middleton Address post game promise to be an incredible celebration of everything this club has meant to so many people. One not to be missed!
We’re excited to be returning to the Lord Mayor’s Oval in 2026, a perfect backdrop to the 20th anniversary celebrations.
For the uninitiated, organized Australian rules football was played in Vietnam as far back as the late 1960s (read more here), but the modern expatriate club movement re-emerged in 1998 when the Saigon Saints and the Hanoi Hawks (aka ‘the Bloody Army’) formed to play in what is believed to be the first ever Aussie Rules football tournament in Asia, sponsored by Fosters in conjunction with the opening of the Fosters brewery in Saigon. Following some fits and starts of establishing regular footy the Hanoi Swans started to gain momentum in 2003 and, by 2007, a new National Club would emerge, with a National Committee formed to provide the newly named Vietnam Swans with a bigger player pool and bigger possibilities. The 2007 Asian Championships provided the stage for the debut of the new National Club, a major milestone, and one which set the Swans up as a permanent fixture in Vietnam and sees us looking forward to celebrating the 20th anniversary of the clubs formation.
A more detailed view on the Swans early days can be found here.
Planned Anniversary Events
Alongside the annual friendship matches plans are afoot for a series of events in the build up to Vung Tau weekend in key cities within Vietnam with specifics to be confirmed closer to the date, watch this space!
