It’s not just mad dogs and Englishmen that come out in the midday tropical sun. A hearty breed of sportsmen in Hong Kong have taken a traditionally winter sport and thrown themselves into it through the midst of Hong Kong’s oppressive summers.

The Hong Kong Dragons have for 20 years plied their unusual brand of football known as Australian Rules. An extremely physical and fast-paced game often dubbed by outsiders as “Australian No-Rules”, it a unique Australian game with mass appeal. A crowd of almost 100,000 will converge on the hallowed turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (known universally as The G) to watch the nation’s two best teams go at each other for “100 minutes” on Sept 25.

While the best of Australia’s domestic footballers generate acres of media coverage and soar to national stardom, the Dragons’ will be staking claim to the grander title of international footballers, as they continue training towards to the annual Asian Championships.

See article for full details...

019 HK EET_B8 SPORT_final_low res.pdf

Saturday 2nd October 2010: 11:00am – 4:30pm

Harbour View Rooms, 3/F The Excelsior Hotel, 281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay

HK400 Adults & HK200 Kids - for all you can drink beer, wine and softdrinks plus a 'footy inspired' buffet lunch & free entry into our awesome door prize raffle. Special door prize for kids as well!

See attachment for details

GF Replay.pdf

Darren and Rachel Whitfield are proud to announce the bith of ther first daughter Isla Christine Whitfield. She was born 8:38am on Saturday the 18th of Sept, 2.65kg/5.8lbs, pretty good for 4 weeks early!
Daz says "We're getting her used to the Blue and Red colours already, I'm thinking we can start the Dragons "Foot High Fan Club" with all the Dragons babies born this year! We'll need to put in the order for another XXXS Dragons guernsey for next year!"

Rookie Dragon Chris Adams recently made the press in the presitigious AIS bi-annual newsletter:

http://www.aishk.edu.hk/images/news/newsletter/lion_vol6.pdf

Harry Matthew Gallagher, son of current Dragon star Matthew "Gaggs" Gallagher, was born on August 22nd and weighed an impressive 8lb 6oz. According to Matt he "looks to be a good key position prospect with a great set of dukes on him!!".

Just like the AFL introducing Friday night football 25 years ago, the first installment of Sunday football came to Asia on 5 September 2010 with the Hong Kong Dragons hosting the China cup.  The China Reds visited with a combined team from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhau.  The Macau Lightning (or soon to be called Mac-Cowboys) also played.  The Dragons with a solid 42 players entered two teams with the talent spread evenly across both sides.
 
For the first time (after two failed previous attempts due to black rain), we got onto the Kai Tak oval - the place where the Kai Tak rules were invented.  The ground was in great nick.
 
The local derby was the first game of the day between the Fenwick Cats (white) and Wanchai Demons (blue).  The teams were evened up quite nicely by coach Wino and the scoreboard reflected that for most of the game.  The final score saw the Blue team kick poorly, but get away with a win after kicking two goals deep into time on.  Final score was 5.11.41 to 5.0.30.  New recruit from Ballarat Tarquin was liking the Hong Kong surroundings and took a few screamers during the game.  
 
Second game was a break for the locals as China and Macau slogged it out.  China won easily 7.6.48 to 2.1.13.
 
The blue Dragons were then out again to take on Macau.  Not expected to be the closest match of the day was the call from the Dragons cheer squad and it proved correct.  Macau were spent half way through the second half and called the game off, being happy with the fact they had scored and wanted to do some boozing.  Final score was 9.2.56 to 0.1.1.
 
As Macau hopped into the local brew kindly served up by Mrs Wines, the games continued and the white Dragons squared off against China.  China brought there A game in the first half and were right in the contest.  The Dragons went into half time one point to the good.  Winesy was not too upset with the effort as China were playing well, but quietly pointed out a few issues.  Whippet went to tag China’s onballer Belly who was dominating and Stu and M Jacko lifted in the midfield.  Riggsy relishing a run up forward was also providing a target and PK at fullback was stopping everything that came his way.  A few other cameos by almost every player got the desired result for the Dragons and we went on to win 5.5.35 to 4.1.25.
 
Final game of the day was blue Dragons v China.  A handful of players from the game before decided to have one more run for the Dragons for the day which was fine by the coach so we could hopefully finish off strongly for the day.  The Dragons started well for the first quarter of the game but were not putting scoreboard pressure on.  China managed to make the Dragons pay with a couple of goals in the first half, but the Dragons always held a slight edge with class all over the field and fresh legs rotating off the bench.  Half time Dragons 3.2 to China 2.0.  China ran out of legs in the second half as the Dragons took control.  Woody kept adding to his goal kicking list at international level and players all over the field were providing spark.  Will Burgess managed to snare goal of the day in the dying minutes.  The only dark point of the game was a broken arm to B Jacko.  Get well soon mate.  Final score 8.6.54 to 2.2.14.
 
After singing the family version of the team song it was time for a cold beer only to realize the Macauboys had drunk them all!  Superstar Doddsy kindly put his hand up to save the day and race off to the local bottle shop to keep the team and faithful happy.
 
At the presentations Bowski presented the China cup to Dragons coach and captain Winesy and Stuch.  Player of the day went to Tarquin who will be a very handy inclusion at the Asian Champs.  Woody once again was leading goal scorer.  Stuch took out the David Kerr award for most points.
 
Thanks to China, Macau, Dragons team, supporters, groupies and the groundsman.  The Dragons Committee also did a great job organizing most of the logistics that is often overlooked, so well done fellas.
 
Bring on the Asian Champs in Shanghai!

Check out the gallery here...

Farmer

 Sunday 5th September, 12:00 noon

Kai Tak Oval, Dakota Drive (off Olympic Avenue) Kowloon City, Kowloon

See the attachment for details: THECHINACUP.pdf or contact his eminence:president@hk-dragons.com for further details

On 5 September 2010 the China Cup comes to Hong Kong for the first time.

From its origins in 2003 when HK played Shanghai in Shanghai during SARS, this cup has grown in significance and five teams will compete for the cup this time – China Reds, Guangzhou, Macau, Hong Kong Dragons and Hong Kong rebel group the Pok Fulam Vikings (arghh!).

The first game in 2003 was almost cancelled due to the onset of SARS meaning several Hong Kong players pulled out of the trip with the fear of catching SARS on the flight to Shanghai.  There was also the concern from the Dragons key man insurance provider that key Dragons powerbrokers (the coach and president) could not fly on the same plane.  However, these issues were all resolved and the Hong Kong boys were able to get to Shanghai and thump the locals by 80 points.

Previous battles for the cup have seen Hong Kong compete against China in Shanghai 3 times and once in Beijing.  Beijing and Shanghai have also played each other several times.

Sunday promises to be a huge afternoon with some good football on display.  The Farm guide would suggest Guangzhou and Macau will be underdogs as developing teams and Pok Fulam to be too old.  Therefore it should be down to the Hong Kong Dragons and China Reds.  The Dragons at home are hard to beat, but the China Reds are assembling a pretty good side in the lead-up to hosting the Asian Championships in Shanghai in October.

Come down to Kai Tak oval and see the big men fly (or stay on the ground) this Sunday!

Farmer