I guess whatever it takes to win, huh?

Click here for full story.
Player Banned After Testicle Biting
Wed May 1, 8:56 AM ET

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Former Sydney Swans Australian Rules player Peter Filandia was suspended for 10 matches on Wednesday after pleading guilty to biting an opponent's testicles during a game last week.


Filandia, 31, was playing for Port Melbourne against Springvale in the Australian Football League's feeder competition, the Victorian Football League (VFL).

St. Kilda AFL player Chad Davis, playing for Springvale, suffered a perforated scrotum and lost a small amount of blood, a club doctor told the VFL tribunal in Melbourne. He also needed a tetanus injection.

Filandia told the tribunal he could not breathe when he became entangled with Davis and bit him as a reflex action.

However, Filandia did not know which part of his opponent's body he had bitten, he said.

"It was a split-second decision," Filandia told reporters after the hearing.

Tribunal chairman Eddie Power ordered Filandia to undergo player counseling before resuming playing.

In a similar case last year, former rugby league international John Hopoate was banned by the Australian National Rugby League for 12 weeks after poking a finger up the backside of an opponent.

Hopoate was sacked by his club Wests-Tigers but joined rival club Northern Eagles in June 2001.

<font color=orange>Sounds more like rape than a sport! Don't think I'm "MAN" enough to play that game! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] </font>

10 Matches eh ? that'll give him something to chew on. :D

It looks like this time he bit off more than he could chew!

Somebody stop me!!!

lol good point. I've been worrying about australians for a long time now [img]tongue.gif[/img]

<font color="lightgreen">Luckily, very few of us are like that... </font>

I'm not surprised...sport is a religion here, and Ozzies will do whatever it takes to win. :D

Just kidding, ball-biting is pretty low and if word got out that a player had a rep for that nobody would have let him leave the field alive. I haven't had anyone bite me on the nuts when I've been playing rugby yet, but all sorts of nefarious things go in in tackles...all meant to put you off your game.

Don't forget, this is the nation that brought you the John Hopoate Affair just a year ago (I'll repost snippets here):

<font color="yellow">
JOHN HOPOATE was handed a 12-week suspension late tonight after being found guilty of unsportsmanlike interference by the NRL judiciary in a bleak evening for the Wests Tigers.

After a two-hour hearing, the panel of Royce Ayliffe, Mal Cochrane and Jeff Hardy found Hopoate guilty of deliberately sticking his fingers up the anuses of North Queensland players Peter Jones, Paul Bowman and Glenn Morrison in Saturday night's match at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

They heard evidence from Hopoate, referee Tony Archer, Tigers coach Terry Lamb and from all three North Queensland players.

Hopoate's defence counsel Bernie Gross QC contended to Jones that his client had merely administered a "wedgie" on the Cowboy in the seventh minute of the match.

"It wasn't a wedgie. That's when your pants are pulled up your arse. I think I know the difference between a wedgie and someone sticking their finger up my bum," said Jones, admitting that while both acts caused discomfort, they caused different sensations and he could differentiate between the two.

Jones claimed he hadn't provoked Hopoate and that afterwards he immediately expressed his "disgust" and gave the Tongan international a push.

Bowman said after tackling Hopoate in the 17th minute, he stood over the winger and "that's when I felt fingers inside my shorts pushing up my arse".

"There was pressure there. I know he wasn't doing it accidentally. He was definitely pushing.

"I was disgusted. I couldn't believe it. I know it's a tough game, but there's no room for that."

Gross argued that Bowman had been excessive in trying to slow Hopoate from playing the ball by grabbing the North Queensland captain's leg.

But Bowman maintained "if he (Hopoate) was a man, he wouldn't do that".

When pressed by Gross, Bowman became angry and asked the QC: "If I held your leg, would that give you the right to put your finger up my arse?"

In his conclusion, NRL judiciary commissioner Jim Hall described Hopoate's case as appalling.

"I must say in my 45 years' involvement in rugby league I've never come across a more disgusting allegation than I've had to deal with now," Hall said.

As North Queensland captain, Bowman protested against Hopoate's actions to referee Archer after the first two offences.

Archer said despite keeping a close eye on Hopoate for the rest of the game, he did not see the Wests player stick his fingers up anyone else's anus.</font>

:D

[ 05-02-2002, 04:32 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

Two comments:

#1 ICK!

#2 Remind me to never play any sort of sports with an Aussie....

I would like to point out one factual error in the initial post - Rugby League International John Hopoate is NOT AN AUSTRALIAN - he played for New Zealand and is a KIWI.

Not much I can say about the scrotum sashimi case - other than he's a Victorian :D .

Sorry Davros. But you are incorrect!!!

Hopoate is in fact Australian, has never played for NZ, and has actually played for Australia.

Here is the Australian side that played England in 1995

Australia: Tim Brasher; Rod Wishart, Mark Coyne, Terry Hill, John HOPOATE; Brad Fittler (c), Geoff TOOVEY; David Gillespie, Wayne BARTRIM, Mark Carroll, Steven Menzies, Dean Pay, Jim Dymock; Jason Smith, Paul HARRAGON, Matthew Johns, Robbie O'DAVIS (DNP)

As much as I'd like to disown him, he's one of us!