Dear Auskickers, the start of our 2010 season is approaching so dust off those boots and mouthguards and make your way to USRC on the 24th April for Registration

REGISTRATION DETAILS:

• PLACE : United Services Recreation Club, USRC, Garden Room. Enter from Gascoigne Road. Signs and guides will be in place.
• DATE/TIME : 24th April 0900-1200
• ADDRESS : 1 Gascoigne Road, Kings Park, Kowloon. See the following link for details www.usrc.org.hk/index.php (Jordan MTR, Exit B)

• REGISTRATION FORM : Please email aussierules_hkkids@yahoo.com.au for a copy of the form. Registration fee for 2010 is $600 per child.

• ELIGIBILITY : The minimum rquirement to register is School attendance i.e. Reception/Prep. (Not Kindy/Pre-school). Boys and Girls over 12 years age are welcome to register for our 'Junior Dragons'. This group will be run if numbers permit.

• CHILDREN RECEIVE : A 2010 Auskick Rookies Pack, and 2 ARJFC HK(Auskick) Training Tops. The Tops are unchanged from last year, so if yours still fit, please help us save on costs and bring them again this season.

• PLEASE NOTE : No parking is available at the Club and attendance is restricted to the Garden Room only for registration, no other Club areas are available. A soft drink and snack will be available for each child attending registration.

• REQUEST : Please make best attempts to register on the 24th. There is no requirement for children or parents to attend registration. Any responsible adult may submit registrations on their anothers behalf. Registrations will be accepted on the subsequent game days however this will be difficult due to location and available helpers.

• SEASON START : Saturday 1st May at HAPPY VALLEY. The 8th May is also planned for Happy Valley however the entire remainder othe season will be at KINGS PARK.

Confirmation emails will be sent in the week prior to each Saturday with more information and updates.

Regards
ARJFC HK (Auskick) Committee

Keano (right in blue) set a scorching pace for a good cause.

Beating the banana
Although not usually recommended in public, pacy Dragon Brendan Keane beat the banana while in TST to take out the 3km version of the 5th annual WCRF HK Beat the Banana! Charity Run held recently. Close to 800 runners aged from 8 months to 70 years old shared a morning of great fun and energy for cancer prevention along the beautiful Tsimshatsui waterfront while raising more than HK$420,000 for WCRF HK's vital cancer prevention work. At the 3km fun run, champion Keano successfully beat the giant running banana in 9 minutes and 18 seconds.

Live gig
The Dragon's very own superstar, Justin 'Diesel' Barbero will be making his debut live music gig on Saturday 13th March. The lads at V13 have announced they intend to hold a live music promotion night with $13 vodkas and a $1300 tab to be won. Barbs will be playing a one hour set. Get down to hear our guitar hero belting it out. All together now, "You're the Boff, try and understand it ...."

Halfa Farma
Michael 'Farmer' Robertson was one of the Dragons to take part in the annual Standard Chartered (half) Marathon, completing the 21kms in a credible 1hr 49 mins.
(Any other runner results welcomed).

New arrivals expected
Dragons big man Brian Jackson and wife Michelle have announced that they are expecting baby number three mid-year 2010.

Occasional player and long-time Dragons couple DJ Robbie Burns and wife Cris are also expecting their debut offspring arrival around the same time.

2002 BALI 9s

Lining up for the national anthem

After a baron 2001 season, the Dragons re-assembled a committee at the start of 2002. After a loss against the Jakarta Bintangs in Jakarta by 33 goals in May, it could only get better from there on. Third in a four team Asian Championships in Singapore followed and then the Dragons went to Bali in October to compete in the inaugural Bali 9s tournament. The Bali 9s was a 9 a side competition created by the Bali Geckos on a 100m long field (probably created because they have no bigger grounds in Bali....).

The Dragons assembled a small but strong side for the tour with the likes of Hamish Stuart, Graeme Rigg, Damian McNair, Nick Hyland and Matt Campbell in the side. As depth was a problem, we went recruiting in the Bali pubs on Friday night - an exercise that netted a German basketballer and a Scotish bloke no-one could understand!

After winning 3 of the 4 round robin games, the Dragons made it to the final. An early injury to Hamish was covered by smooth recruiting of Duane Stewart - a 150 gamer for Norwood in the SANFL who came down with his wife to watch, and mentioned as he passed our tent that he played for Norwood and that we had the same jumper. That was all David Bowtell needed to hear to sign him up!

The best round robin game was our upset win over Bali where Big Rob Caldwell (aka Raymond's brother) kicked 5 in a demolition job of Bali's greatest ever player Peter Muir.

The final saw the Dragons lose a close one to Jakarta after having the lead at half time. It would have been nice to win of course, but this tour showed the Dragons were back as a force in Asian football.

This tour is equally or more memorable in that it was the week before the Sari Club / Paddy's Bar bombings. The Dragons partied at the Sari Club all weekend and were extremely lucky that the original date of our tour was moved forward a week due to a clash with a 10s rugby tournament on the weekend of the bombing.

There was a lot of emotion from all when the Dragons that toured gathered at the Hong Kong Football Club the week after the bombings to pay our respects at a specially arranged rugby tournament to the eight Football Club rugby players that lost their lives the weekend before in Bali.

Bogan's broken nose was heard from the 3rd tier of the grandstand by none other than Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

2003 BALI 9s

The date for the 2003 tournament was fittingly set for the first anniversary weekend of the bombings.

Again the Dragons had a small squad and recruited pretty much a full Melbourne based footy team from Keysborough on the morning of the tournament to help us out. These guys had been there the year before and went to Bali to pay their respects. They were not expecting to play footy, but cold beer all day was the clincher!

On-field, the highlight for the Dragons was facing Bali first up. Jason McCartney was playing for Bali and there was a media contingent like an AFL game. Front page of the Herald Sun the next day was a marking contest between McCartney and a Dragon. Probably the only time we will make the front page of the Herald Sun, and the Dragon in the picture was one of our ring-ins!

The Dragons came third in the tournament but did inflict the only loss on the tournament's eventual winners the Batemans Bay Seahawks.

Off-field, this was the day Asian football was put on the map. A crowd of 2,000 plus was in attendance, AFL legends Dermott Brereton and Ron Barrassi were there and the final between Bali and Batemans Bay was shown live on TV in Adelaide and Perth.

Even more significant was the arrival late in the day of Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Simon Crean and their wives. They arrived to an amazing roar and standing ovation for making the effort to come and pay their respects for those lost 12 months earlier and to our appreciation for taking time to come to our football tournament.

After Batemans Bay won a close Grand Final, John Howard presented the cup and said "today is a great day for Australian sport. Matthew Hayden has made a world record 380 runs, the Wallabies have beat Argentina in the first game of the world cup and the Batemens Bay Seahawks have one the Bali 9s!". From there on I stopped voting for Tony Lockett and moved to John Howard!! Legend.

Truely a proud day to be an Australian and a very emotional one for all of us.