During this podcast we catch up with the Macau Lightning AFL President Dave Smith!
Scottish-born Dave has served as the Lightning President since 2013, which is one of the longest serving current Presidents in the region!
We thoroughly enjoyed chewing the fat with Dave and hearing about the folklore stories of yesterday, in particular the Asian Champs back in 2016 when Libba represented the Lightning which went viral!
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Nicknames: Welshy and The Prez.
What Clubs have you played for? Simply Macau Lightning.
How many years have you been playing in Asia? Joined in 2011, so nine years.
Preferred position/s: Goal square, perfect for me.
Number: Number six, my lucky number.
AFL team: Made a big mistake with this one, but Collingwood.
Best player/s in Asia: Compared to me everyone is good, but Troy Harris is the best I’ve played with and against.
Best teammate/s: Filthy Phil, he’s a Pom and started at the same time as me.
Most annoying teammate: Probably Filthy Phil again, he gets two votes.
Most difficult opponents: For us, probably the Malaysian Warriors. They toured here and smashed us, Digger and his guys there.
Favourite holiday destination: Probably the Philippines.
Best footy trip: Our tour to Jakarta. They were the best hosts we’ve had and the biggest Friday night before the game we’ve had too. The whole set up was 100% and I’d recommend any trip to Jakarta.
Invite 4 people of your choice to a dinner party: Gordon Ramsay (I’m a big Gordon Ramsay fan), my Everton legend Duncan Ferguson is my favourite player of all time (he’s a tough nut), Jim Jefferies, the Aussie comedian is the funniest man I’ve ever seen and Megan Fox, because she has a good personality.
Favourite meal: A doner kebab and an Irn-Bru, and maybe a few beers.
3 things people don’t know about you: Some of the Macau Lightning guys bought a racehorse and named it after the Club, so we’d be the first Club in Asia with a racehorse named after it. For a man called Welshy, I’ve only been there for less than 24 hours in my entire life, and third my family is quite famous in the modelling world, but you wouldn’t be able to tell with my face, so I’m not sure what happened to me, but I missed that gene!
What do you like the most about playing footy in Asia? The beers after the game, and meeting so many amazing people and life-long friends. Touring to Thailand for the Champs and the Masters, it’s an experience that not many people get to have. I’ve made friends with people I never would have contacted before, so I love the social side of it all. We’ll get that Division Three title at some point as well.
What does the future of AFL Asia look like and/or how do you see the sport impacting local communities across Asia? It’s only going to get bigger and bigger, isn’t it? The exposure, the new teams wanting to be involved, people setting new things up, I just can’t see it stop growing. We’re only seeing a small to medium level of potential to where it’s going to actually be, and with the Shanghai game up and going again hopefully, the only way it up as far as I can see it.
