Match Report:

Aussie Rules footy arrives with full frontal force in the Philippines

Dragons fold to the Manila Folders

Manila: The Dragons toured to Manila take on the Manila Folders in the first international ever played on Philippine soil.

An under strength and typically hungover Dragons outfit arrived at Folder Dome on Saturday afternoon and were well impressed by the facilities at the Manila Polo club. With magnificent facilities and the best playing surface in Asia, not to mention that the ground was big enough for a 18-a-side game, the Philippines had established itself on the Asian football map. A local record crowd of 140 paying spectators added to the atmosphere.

Coach Hamilton decided not to play, but coached from the sidelines. Captain for the day was Craig 'Bogan' Francis. The game was 9-a-side.

Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce flipped the 5 peso coin and after winning the toss, Bogan decided to kick to the AC/DC end. The Dragons started out of the blocks well with Salty winning the ruck, and Boges and Gary Wines providing the drive out of the centre. The Folders got a couple of goals back late in the quarter, but the Dragons held a slender lead at quarter time.

With the wind the Dragons were expected to increase the lead in the second quarter, but it wasn't to be. The Folders got their act together in the quarter and took a two goal lead into the main break. Schieby was doing a good job of fighting the Folders hooligan ruckman who was covered in tats.

The third quarter was more of the same, with the Dragons lack of depth showing as we were running out of legs. Five goals was the difference at three quarter time.

The final quarter saw the Dragons show a bit of fight kicking the first two goals of the quarter. With victory in sight, Schieby managed to get on the receiving end of a headlock which resulted in a free kick to the Folders in front of goal which was converted.

In the end, the Folders went on to win by 26 points and claim the Smart International Trophy.

Best players for the Dragons were Schieby, Loose (4 goals), Bogan and Winesy.

In light of Farmer's public speaking ban (incurred after his imfamous defamation of everyone, in KL), Bogan made the acceptance speech and dealt with the assembled dignitaries.

Match Report:

Kuala Lumpur: The third game of the day saw the Dragons pitted against the Singapore Dingbats.

As usual, the Dingbats were taking themselves way too seriously and pranced their way onto the field expecting an easy win. Given their 16-goal trouncing of a deceptively undermanned touring Dragons side only weeks before, their misplaced confidence was not unexpected.

Hamish Stuart made his presence felt on long time rival, blonde pin up poster boy Andrew Taylor of the Bats and that was indicative of how the game was to proceed. Ninety-five percent of the play was in the Dragons forward line for the game and the Dingbats failed to give a yelp. The Dragons had their most comfortable win of the round-robin phase.

Match Report:

Kuala Lumpur: The fourth game of the preliminary rounds saw the unbeaten Dragons up against the Thailand Tigers. Given the depth of the squad, many of the Dragons top players were rested in preparation for the final.

There were still several stars out on the field for the Dragons, most notably the president, who given his intimidating size and agility was very hard to match up on. The Dragons took the game easily, by a blowout of 7 points.

After their domination of the round robin, the Dragons watched with anticipation as Jakarta played Singapore to see who would join them in the grand final. The Singapore Wombats gave a disappointing Bintangs a bit of a bath and progressed to the final against clear crowd favourites, the Dragons.

Match report:

Kuala Lumpur: Grand final of the Champs, and as the crowd continued to roll through the turnstiles, including hordes of loose groupies dressed in the Dragons strip, the scene was set for another Dragons conquest.

Hamilton, Forster, Rigg and Dixon did a great job of firing the boys up pre-game, and the Dragons ran onto the field full of confidence.

Less than three seconds into the game, the ball was out of the centre and into the Dragons forward line. Some lack of discipline from the Bats saw a 50 metre penalty awarded to the Dragons and a goal on the board to Will Hamilton.

That was how the game was to proceed with the Bats hardly getting a kick for the rest of the game. The star studded half back line of Burbury, Dixon and Stuart was solid all game, and anytime it did get past, fullback Jamie Liddle was supreme and cleared the ball out. The midfield, led by captain Graeme Rigg also won every centre clearance.

Half way through the second half, the Wombats had given up, and only had one player forward of centre. With the Wombats held scoreless, the Dragons had enjoyed possibly their sweetest victory. They also became the first team to record back-to-back Asian Championships.

Congratulations to Graeme Rigg who was awarded player of the grand final, and to Simon Dixon who was a well deserved winner of player of the tournament. Tim Burbury was also a standout for the Dragons all day, but all in all it was a genuinely great team effort that led to the cup staying with the team from the Fragrant Harbour.

Russel Forster contests the throw-in on the outer wing