Aussies threatened with violence by Irish fans

FOUL PLAY in the recent International Rules series provoked a stream of abusive phone calls and threats of physical violence from Irish people to the Australian Embassy in Dublin, it has emerged.

Australian media yesterday revealed a communication from the embassy was sent last week to the Foreign Affairs department in Canberra stating it had been besieged by angry calls and threats of violence from Irish fans outraged by the behaviour of some Australian players.

According to the communication the phone calls ranged from “moderate to abusive and threatening,” and also referred to some callers “threatening violence” against the Australian team when they come to Ireland next year.

It stated that no other issue in Ireland in recent years had “generated this level of negative feeling” towards Australia and went on to cite angry reaction on Irish radio.

It is understood the Australian Government is not overly concerned by the threats of violence, while AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said he was unaware of any increased security risk in Ireland: “I had hoped the government would let us know if they think there’s an issue there.”

The Australian Embassy was not prepared to comment last night.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Rules co-captain Chris Johnson has paid a heavy price for striking Ireland’s Philip Jordan and Mattie Forde during the second Test in Melbourne two weeks ago.

Despite pleading guilty to the striking offences and offering heartfelt apologies to both players, Johnson has been suspended for the next five games and won’t be eligible to play again until the second test of the 2008 series.

In a statement issued by his club, the Australian captain said: “You don’t know how disappointed I am in myself at what happened. To Philip Jordan and Mattie Forde, I apologise sincerely to you guys. I’d like to say to them that I can’t believe it was me doing those things. It’s not the way that I play the game.

“I really would love to have the chance to play against them again and prove to them that it was an isolated, temporary lapse, and not one of my character traits.”

A tribunal set up to look into incidents during the second Test took place yesterday via a telephone link-up which featured officials from the AFL and the GAA.

As the verdict was announced, the committee that governs the playing conditions announced that a red card offence will be punishable by immediate dismissal for the remainder of the game.

From next year, the opposing team will be awarded a penalty kick immediately after the incident, regardless of where the sending off incident takes place on the field. In addition, the team whose player is sent off will not be able to bring on a replacement player for another 20 minutes.