The AFL’s security lead, Alistair Meldrum, responded to that email, agreeing the flag breached the league’s conditions of entry and should not have been allowed into the venue.

“Once identified, it should then have been requested to be seized/confiscated or the patron in possession requested to leave if they refused to surrender the flag,” Meldrum wrote in response.

It is banned for fans to wear or display commercial, political, religious or offensive signage or logos of any kind. However, it is not banned to display national signage or logos.

The AFL later clarified: “Correspondence sent to a patron that had an issue with the flag being displayed was an incorrect interpretation of our conditions of match day entry policy and we apologise for any confusion.”

Players have posed with other national flags over the years, including Geelong player Zach Tuohy, who posed with the Irish flag after the Cats won last year’s grand final.