Aussie Rules catches on with Asians

April, 01 2010
By Michael Smith
VNS

HCM CITY — When Pangnha Chhiev first started playing Australian Rules football in Melbourne he knew his parents would forbid it.

So for the first month that he played, Chhiev packed a racquet in his bag and told his mum that he was going to play tennis. He could only hide it for a month as washing lines full of footy socks, shorts and jerseys raised his mum's suspicions.

Chhiev lived in Melbourne's south east near Springvale where the city's Vietnamese population concentrated. He was then in his last year of university and knew from past experience (he had requested to play football when he was only 10) that his parents did not approve of the dangerous sport.

Traditional Asians, both from Cambodia with some family ties in Viet Nam, Chhiev's parents also believed that their son's studies must come before any sporting interests.

Nearly ten years on, Chhiev is now captain of the only Asian Australian Rules Football team in Australia, the Southern Dragons. The team is mostly Vietnamese.

"There's some really passionate parents now. The parents have come around and accepted Australian culture and want their kids to get involved," said the 29-year-old, who was in Viet Nam last week with fellow team member John Hong to visit Hong's family.

"It's a big achievement in itself, because before the parents were always trying to protect us."

The Southern Dragons is made up of about 80 players mostly of Vietnamese descent, with about five players, including Chhiev, of Cambodian descent plus a smattering of different races including a couple of Australians. About half of the players were born in Viet Nam, but grew up in Australia.

It plays in third division of the Southern Football League (SFL) in Melbourne, and was formed in late 2008 from a smaller suburban outfit, the Elgar Park Dragons, which both players were also members of.

SFL had actually approached the Elgar Park Dragons and asked them to join their league as they were trying to promote the sporting code across all cultures.

Hong and Chhiev said it had been a risk to join SFL, but it paid off.

"If we joined that league, we knew were going to get hurt," Hong said, explaining that some of the Dragon's players were as young as 16 and quite skinny.

"Its one thing to play in an amateur league and win half of our games, but its another thing to join a big league like SFL, where the players are much bigger and get beaten by 100 points every time we play," he said.

He said losing like that would have cost the club dearly in membership numbers, but gratefully it never happened.

What happened instead was – they played a 2007 season finalist in their first game of the SFL league last year and kept up with them for the first three quarters – only losing in the final quarter.

Congratulated

Over beers after the match, the other team congratulated the Southern Dragons, saying they had expected a walk-over but were surprised to find a tough, skilful opponent instead.

Hong and Chhiev said what the Dragons lack in they make up for in fitness, agility and passion.

They said their fear of the bigger players was worse than the players themselves – so once they had played in the SFL a few times the fear went away.

The Southern Dragon's headquarters are in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton, which has a large population of Vietnamese and neighbours Springvale, the centre of Vietnamese culture in the city.

Club captain Chhiev said his club aimed to make Asians, particularly Vietnamese, feel comfortable to join in the national sport. Team members were always bringing newcomers – giving the Southern Dragons one of SFL's biggest member lists.

"With Australian Rules footy, there's a lot of Asians around who love the game but wouldn't be comfortable going down to park to play."

"That's what the club is all about."

The pair, who played some footy with the local team in HCM City last week, said the Dragons players hang out all the time together. They are very close knit and passionate, so anyone from Springvale who wants to join the club would already know at least one other team member.

For the last six months the team has been trying to organise a trip to Viet Nam to play the Australian Rules Football club here, Viet Nam Swans.

They are planning to come in January. There would be irony in the contest that would speak volumes for the sport as a builder of multicultural communities: A team from Australia made up of players mostly of Vietnamese descent, coming to Sai Gon to play a team from Viet Nam made up of mostly white Australians.