Example: Tony Abbott "Look, I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin ... you bet I am"
Cargill
Outside of the football context (whence it came) it means to stand up to someone, figuratively puffing up one’s chest, and grabbing your opponent by the front of their shirt. Tony Abbott wasn’t going to do that literally to Putin over the downing of MH17, but that was his metaphor.
Example: Tony Abbott: "I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin about MH17, you bet I am!"
A shirtfront, an Australian rules football term, is a “head-on charge aimed at bumping an opponent to the ground”
Outside of the football context (whence it came) it means to stand up to someone, figuratively puffing up one’s chest, and grabbing your opponent by the front of their shirt. Tony Abbott wasn’t going to do that literally to Putin over the downing of MH17, but that was his metaphor.