By Chris McAsey
One of the matches of the tournament at the 2025 Asian Championships in Chon Buri was the men’s Division 2 clash between the China Reds and Philippine Eagles.
China looked more skilled across the board, but the Eagles brought intensity and threw everything at the contest. In a physical encounter with lots of big tackles, China looked in control late in the second half before livewire forward Lito Ramirez evened the scores with a sharp crumbed goal.
In the dying seconds, Lito struck again with a skilful dribble goal to get the Philippines over the line for a memorable come-from-behind win.
It was the Eagles only win for the tournament, but they were crowd favourites for their big smiles and attitude. With two-thirds of the team made up of local Filipino players, they made up for a lack of polish with effort and enthusiasm.
One exception though was dynamic small forward Lito Ramirez, who despite having only played AFL for a year, showed incredible ball sense and skill to almost single-handedly get the Philippines over the line against China.
With wild celebrations going on around him after the win, Lito was all smiles and amazingly humble.
‘I really don’t know what I’m doing here!’ he said. ‘I just started playing AFL last year.’
‘But it’s fun to play AFL!’
Lito was abandoned on the streets of Manila when he was seven years old and grew up in an orphanage in Quezon City. As a teenager he was introduced to rugby union and went on to represent the Philippines.
Lito represented the Philippines in rugby union.
He said there was some difficulty adjusting to a lot of different rules in AFL and the size of the field.
‘I’m just trying to improve and get more involved in AFL,’ Lito said.
‘We practiced a lot coming into the tournament, but on a field half the size of this AFL ground!’
Lito said there had been some intensity in the lead up to the match against China.
‘That coach told us we have to beat China!’ he said.
‘But we’re just here to learn more about the game and have fun.’
Lito has had an incredible journey so far, and now a new chapter has been written that will be talked about for a long time in the Asian footy community.
