Southern Dragons and Vietnamese Australians, Pee (front left) and Johnny (front right) attend last week's training session in Saigon
Southern Dragons and Vietnamese Australians, Pee (front left) and Johnny (front right) attend last week’s training session in Saigon.
The Southern Dragons is an Aussie Rules Club in Melbourne with one special difference; it is made up predominantly of Vietnamese Australians. The Vietnam Swans first made contact with this group when they were the Elgar Park Dragons back in 2007 and so it was fantastic to finally see some Dragons over here in Vietnam.
Yesterday’s Vietnam News published a half page story, Aussie Rules catches on with Asians, about the Dragons after watching them train with the Swannies last week:
“So for the first month that he played, Chhiev (Pee) packed a racquet in his bag and told his mum that he was going to play tennis. He could only hide it for a month as washing lines full of footy socks, shorts and jerseys raised his mum’s suspicions.
“Chhiev lived in Melbourne’s south east near Springvale where the city’s Vietnamese population concentrated. He was then in his last year of university and knew from past experience (he had requested to play football when he was only 10) that his parents did not approve of the dangerous sport.
“Traditional Asians, both from Cambodia with some family ties in Viet Nam, Chhiev’s parents also believed that their son’s studies must come before any sporting interests.
“Nearly ten years on, Chhiev is now captain of the only Asian Australian Rules Football team in Australia, the Southern Dragons. The team is mostly Vietnamese.”
To read the rest of the article, click here. Thanks to Pee and Johnny for joining a Swannies training session last week – and good luck to the Southern Dragons in 2010! Also, at the same training session, the Swannies were pleased to welcome Beijing Bombers President, Mic Mittasch and Thailand Tigers Player, Trent Smith.
To see other articles and stories about the Vietnam Swans in the media, click here.
