PAUL Roos says he is disappointed with St Kilda CEO Archie Fraser publicly raising ‘tunnelling’ claims against Craig Bolton but reiterated he has no problem with St Kilda's football department.
“You don't want to make it a bigger issue than it is that's why we've made a few phone calls today to knock it on the head,” Roos said.
“I've addressed it with Rossy (Ross Lyon). He wasn't aware of Archie's comments. So we've gone through the appropriate channels and things are pretty much under control now. There was certainly no malice directed to St Kilda footy department. I've spoken with Rossy and we're fine.
“It shouldn't have got to where it got to. These were comments by St Kilda football club were out of whack with the football department."
The claim of “tunnelling” was levelled by Fraser at the Swans' co-captain after last Saturday night's two point loss to the NAB Cup winners at Telstra Dome.
It was claimed full back Bolton was deliberately knocking spearhead Nick Riewoldt's legs out from under him during marking contests. Fraser publicly suggested it was a dangerous practice worthy of investigation by the AFL.
“It could've easily been handled the way they normally are, which is behind the closed doors and through the appropriate channels. We've spoken to them about that. We weren't happy with the comments and Myles [Baron-Hay, club CEO] made that pretty clear today,” said Roos.
“I think Archie took it upon himself to make a few statements that obviously we weren't comfortable or happy with as a footy club and Myles addressed that,” Roos said.
Roos said that as far as he was aware, no complaint was had been sent to the AFL or request for the claim to be investigated. “It's more just an inquiry about 'are they free kicks, or aren't they free kicks?"
“You can always go through individual free kicks and there are appropriate channels to go through. And we're fine with the umpires department and how they normally handle things.”
Roos added the claim was a slight on the character of a player who is held in a high esteem at the Swans. “It is a slur on one of our captains of the footy club. He's never gone out to deliberately hurt anyone in a game of football.”
The Swans coach also rejected claims that these tunnelling claims were another case of Swans bashing.
