Match report: Irish beat battered Dragons

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Posted by rrburns 2079 days ago under News
Kowloon: The Hong Kong Dragons have lost their International Rules clash with the Irish, 75 points to 50. More details as they come to hand.

Saturday 27th May saw the Hong Kong Dragons play the Gaelic Football side in a game of Combined Rules. While we only had 14 payers turn up, it didn't stop the boys putting together a competitve side in a fast and high contact game.

While we did trail at the end of each quarter, we were able
to reduce the margin to go down 75-50. Unfortunately Burbs tore his hammy and Nigel sustained a suspected fractured wrist, putting pressure on an already depleted bench of older men.

Big efforts were seen by big bad bustling Barry "Peter Kenny" Hall, Ian Allen, Greg Tate and Graeme Rigg.

Thanks to the rest of the lads that came down, as well as the spectators and hopefully in the next round we play against the Gaelic boys we can really give it a crack.

Jamie Liddle is a traitor and fronted up for the Irish boys. Questions will be asked.

Separately, you website fans will be pleased to know the Thailand Tour photo gallery has been updated with four pages of action and Anzac emotion. Take a look at photo gallery/dragons in action on the main menu.

Nathan Byrne

Scandal as Thailand result overturned

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Posted by rrburns 2082 days ago under News
The pack flies in the Tigers goalsquare

The Thailand Tigers have declared the blockbuster Kanchanaburi Anzac clash with the Dragons a draw after studying DVD footage of game.

The Tigers have informed the Dragons heirarchy that the scorers omitted one point kicked by the home side in the second quarter, meaning the their score should have been registered as 9.8-62, equalling the Dragons 8.14-62.

Thailand officials sat through repeated viewings of the promotional DVD of the game before concluding the result was a draw.

As holders of the Hamilton-Reddell Cup contested between the two sides, the Dragons will retain the trophy. The Tigers are in possession of the cup and have said they will be engraving it with the revised result.

The international scandal surrounding the shock reversal echoes the domestic Australian competition's own fiasco played out on the same Saturday - the St. Kilda-Fremantle clash later awarded to the Dockers after originally being declared a draw.

At the time of going to press, Dragons and Tigers officials were unavailable for comment. But Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse vented his anger at authorities.

"What would I know. I'm only a coach. Nobody listens to the coaches anyway. It's a disgrace".

The professionally-produced DVD will be made available to the Hong Kong public soon.

The Dragons resident historian will update the relevant records when the Dragons heirarchy confirms the news from Thailand.

Craig 'Bogan' Francis

Cats pounce early for intraclub win

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Posted by rrburns 2082 days ago under News
 
The pack piles onto Cosmo
Q1: FC - 6.3.39 v WD - 0.0.0
Q2: FC - 7.4.46 v WD - 2.3.15
Q3: FC - 11.5.71 v WD - 3.4.22
Q4: FC - 12.5.77 v WD - 3.9.27

Goals:
FC: Campbell 5, Byrne 2, Rigg, Scott, Hardy, Dodds, Absalom
WD: Bryson, Tate, Faulkner

Best:
FC: Campbell, Byrne, Rigg, Scott
WD: Bryson, Burbury, Wines Mission Road: The Cats proved as wily as their night-prowling namesakes in claiming the first intraclub match of the season against a sinfully slow-starting Demons outfit at Mission Road on Saturday (May 20).

The bookies' short odds on the Cats' before the match looked an astute assessment of the two sides respective abilities after a tough but ultimately one-sided first quarter that saw the Wan Chai Demons held scoreless while the Cats purred away to a six-goal lead.

After winning the toss, Demons Capt Burbury may have to face the match committee over his generous concession of a breeze measured by anemometer at, coincidentally, exactly six goals.

The Cats wielded their height advantage to great affect, relying on the likes of fast-leading full forward Matty Campbell and goalkicking ruckman President Byrne to move the ball swiftly between the guts and goal square.

The Demons managed to outscore the Cats in the second stanza but by the time the Cats had used the breeze for the second time a ferocious and fast game of footy was all but decided.


Bryso and Burbs clean up in defence
To the Demons' credit, and Kevin Sheedy's undoubted praise, the underdogs refused to flood or "play any of that basketball crap". Their last quarter counter-attack was foiled only by wastefulness worthy of the AFL Bombers sans Lloydy.

They managed to pile on five scoring shots to the Cats' one, but were left to rue the fact they managed a paltry five behinds to the Cats one straight goal.

Tour manager Farmer best summed up the afternoon's proceedings by declaring "football was the winner". In particular Dragons football. Both sides showed great endeavour and the club will emerge from the coming months of intensive football well-placed to tackle the rest of Asia in Jakarta later this year.

Among the highlights of the day (in no order of merit or otherwise):

- Taity (Demons) and Hardy (Cats) kicking goals from the back pocket and half-back-flank respectively.

- A stunned Cosmo winning a free kick and look of bewilderment as he looked for the ball and pondered his next move

- A leaping Chris Yee planting his boot in Bogan's throat as Boges stood his ground waiting for a hospital pass - and the subsequent free kick to Yee for 'tripping' as Bogan stood trying to retrieve the size 11 boot from his larynx.

- Farmer's boundary throw-ins, better suited to a Gnome XVIII vs Pygmy XVIII clash.

- A fourth quarter Matty Campbell lead, leap, 180 degree spin and grab.

- The contorted look on Matt Feeney's face as he tried to refrain from abusing the umpires, in the wake of his highly publicised criticisms of the men-in-white at training the week previous.

Craig 'Bogan' Francis

INTRACLUB TEAM LISTS; Cats v Demons

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Posted by rrburns 2083 days ago under News

Wan Chai Demons
Tim Burbury
Lee Pilgrim
Anthony Thompson
Gary Wines
Stuart Walker
Patrick Duffy
Sam Mrad
Craig Francis
Gavin Parry
Adrian Archer
Gary Smith
Paul Mallia
Simon Dixon
Sam Gribble
Liam Fitzpatrick
Mark Fabiani
Hamish Stuart
Michael Robertson
Dave Kerr
Rob Burton
Paul Wilson
Rob Tucker
Dean Boatman
Shannon Morgan
Dale Cooney
Andrew Bryson
Andy Stewart
Greg Tate
Anthony Hill
Pat Nihan
Dan Seow
Mark Wood
Matt Elliott
Justin Faulkner

Diggers' tales make it a tour like no other

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Posted by rrburns 2098 days ago under News
Hellfire Pass

Craig 'Bogan' Francis

KANCHANABURI: Footy tours always create bonds of mateship and help to unite the team in a way few other footy sides ever have the privilege to experience.

Every tour stakes its own special place in our personal histories and the collective history of the ever-evolving Dragons Footy Club.

But the Thailand tour over the 2006 Anzac weekend offered an insight into what the cherished Aussie notion of mateship is all about in a way no other tour possibly could. The lesson sprang not from the usual banter, antics and sporting heroics and bloopers but from the bravery and kinship of blokes who toured the very same area more than 60 years ago.

On the Sunday morning of the tour, the two sides paid homage to the memory of those that lost their lives or endured unimaginable hardships at the site of Hellfire Pass, the most notorious stretch of the Death Railway meant to link Thailand and Burma for use by the Japanese during WWII.

After a museum tour, wreath-laying ceremony and two minutes silence, two military buglers playing in perfect harmony broke the morning stillness of the serene jungle surrounds with the Reveille.

Each tour squad member was then left to their own unsettling imaginations as he walked around the site, accompanied by a pair of headphones and the tales of suffering, survival and gallows humour as told by the fortunate and brave Diggers who defied enormous odds, astonishing cruelty and mind-numbing deprivation to make it out of Hellfire Pass alive.

Before the Dragons took to the field on the Saturday, Coach Rigg read an excerpt from a reflection by Fred Seiker, a former Digger POW who writes graphically of the punishment he received at the hands of the Japanese while working on the Death Railway at Hellfire Pass.