Nothing can diminish the pleasure of playing again. They were wonderful times playing for Australia, magical memories that flood back when we take the field together again.

Craig Foster battles for possession with former Liverpool midfielder Didi Hamann on Thursday night. Credit:Getty Images

And despite a disgusting turn of events, I was touched by the responses I received over the past days from parents, mostly fathers, and that led me from an indifference to this sort of garbage, to action.

Messages from fathers who feel, as I do, that our relationships with our daughters are incredibly important. We invest immense energy and emotion to build and maintain our relationships with our children as an antidote to the modern world with threats we never had to contend with, and many we don't comprehend. It's extremely worrying as parents.

My physical and emotional support for my nervous daughter in front of 40,000 people as I held and kissed her and told her everything would be well was important for her. As fathers we are the source of safety and security and it is important that the reprehensible treatment of the simple act of a father's love and protection does not ever deter us from this instinct. After reading the powerlessness many feel about the issue, I feel a responsibility to respond and to retaliate.