https://footyology.com.au/thirty-years-on-an-anniversary-theyd-rather-not-remember/
While North Melbourne worked itself into a frenzy, in Canada, Sydney was preparing to take on Melbourne in Vancouver. And the US promoters had gone a little overboard trying to sell their product. Newspaper ads for the game promoted the clash thus: “Balls. Brawls, Bloody Right”. “In Oz, it’s been legal for years. Aussie Rules football it’s organised mayhem. The roughest, toughest sport alive”.
Anyone who hadn’t got the idea by then had it driven home when Sydney ruckman John Ironmonger was photographed sitting on a footpath, tearing at a large piece of raw steak with his teeth.