Staff crew - Beach Party 2007. Prez, Boges, Nico and the Stoochmeister.

The Dragons on Saturday staged one of their most colourful and original club nights, with 120 people turning out at South Bay beach on the southern shores of HK Island.

The gala night of night combined the end of year festivities of the club with the 40th birthday of club stalwart, Boges.

Juiced up by a four-hour open bar, smooth DJ sounds from Yumla regular Adam Wright and vodka sculling from the ice sculpture, the big crowd enjoyed a great rooftop party overlooking a great beach on a misty (smoggy? either way, it only added to the ambiance) night.

Social coordinator Stoochy deserves high praise for pulling together some fine accoutrements. The footy shaped ice sculpture, the fire juggler and a fine selection of grub. The magician however did a very convincing disappearing trick by not turning up! Nico and Boges spent the night reeking of citronella after lighting 30 tiki torches. The footy theme continued with the 40th birthday footy-shaped cake in Fremantle colours.

The club lavished about $20,000 on the event and it was unanimous that it was club money well spent, raising the profile of the team and sport in Hong Kong courtesy of the large and diverse crowd on hand.

Despite some management protestations over volume levels, the beach resounded to clubland tunes and rock anthems til 3am, just a few hours sleep before the junk trip for the departing Jackal. Those who completed the weekend double bill could truly be said to have been 'Jackalised'.

Dragon Beach will go down in the annals of Dragons history as one of the finest social events staged on home shores and raises the bar for all future events.

The Big Unit clears the ball

On Saturday 14th July at approximately 5.10pm, the Hong Kong Dragons (for the 3rd time in 5 years) won the 2007 Asian Championships in Bangkok, Thailand.

In one of the hardest fought battles ever seen, we defeated Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Dubai to take on Bali in the grand final. Given Bali had lost the last 2 grand finals to Singapore, we knew we had to dig deep.

With 5 seconds to go and 1 point up, the Dragons were looking great until Bali marked a ball on the boundary, 40m out from goal. They got a point and it was a draw.

In an epic battle into time-on, we were able to get up 43-34.

A huge congrats goes to Aaron Bester (leading goal kicker), Shannon Morgan (Captain), Dwight Stuchberry (Vice-Captain), Jonno Worthley, Matt Baron and Damien Guengerich for making All Asian selection.

Another big thanks goes to the Dragons Committee including Craig Francis, Chris Nicolay and Dwight Stuchberry who helped out in making 2007 a professional and well planned year. Boys - we got there!!

A final major thanks goes to our sponsors: Michael Page, Bulldogs, Westpac and Compelite.

Dragons - it has been a fantastic year as President and I can only thank all of you for your hard work, commitment and enthusiasm in 2007. To not have all Dragons take the field on the weekend was hard to swallow, however every single one of you have been great clubmen and are great friends.

I look forward to celebrating this hard fought victory in the weeks and months to come and look forward to our tour to Ho Chi Min City on 1st September to play Vietnam as the final match of the calendar year.

To view an article in the Bangkok Post, please click on:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/150707_Sports/15Jul2007_sport07.php