Although the Vietnam Swans may have been victorious overall during the tri-series hosted by the Cambodian Eagles and Cambodian Apsaras on the weekend in Phnom Penh, the biggest winner was having football back more broadly within Indochina and teams travelling for games again for the first time in two and a half years.
The Vietnam Swans vindicated their AFL Asia 2022 Asian Champs Division 1 team nomination with solid wins over both the Eagles and the Thailand Tigers, with the latter two teams showing plenty of positive signs ahead of their Division 2 campaigns come October.
The victorious Swans celebrating the Tri-Series win.
A combined Lady Swans and Thailand Tigers outfit took home the chocolates in the Women’s game against the Cambodian Apsaras, with the most impressive outcomes being the number of new players entering the AFL Asia AFLW ranks and the high volume of local development players amongst the three clubs.
The Vietnam Lady Swans were the inaugural AFL Asia AFLW Asian Champions back in 2018 and have been a powerhouse women’s team over the stretch, whilst the Cambodian Apsaras are one of the inaugural AFLW clubs and have traditionally had one of the highest participants teams in Asia. The Thailand Tigresses were established in 2019 prior to hosting the Asian Champs that year and have been busily building ever since.
The combined AFLW sides were all smiles after their match.
All three AFLW clubs are tracking nicely ahead of the 2022 AFLW Asian Champs, which could feature up to 8 teams, in what will be the third edition of the ever-growing format.
Final Scores:
Game 1
Vietnam Swans 9.5 (59)
Thailand Tigers 5.4 (34)
Game 2 & 4 (Combined Scores)
Lady Swans/Tigresses 6.7 (43)
Cambodian Apsaras 1.3 (9)
Game 3
Cambodian Eagles 4.6 (24)
Thailand Tigers 3.6 (24)
Game 5
Vietnam Swans 8.9 (57)
Cambodian Eagles 3.1 (19)
The Tigers and Eagles tussle in a hard-fought contest, with the Eagles eventually prevailing.
