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.