IT ALL began with a blue over a child's birthday party and a trip to the zoo, and as Shane Whitnall now sees it, there it should have ended.

What might have been a minor, private spat between Shane and his younger brother, Carlton Football Club captain Lance Whitnall, instead became a public circus.

But yesterday, three months after the brothers' fight began and a day after his Epping home was vandalised, Shane Whitnall held a press conference on his front lawn to call for an end to the sordid dispute. "It's gone too far now. I wish it hadn't even got to this stage," he said.

The Whitnalls' brotherly bond began to fracture in late January after Shane's wife, Tammy, did not attend a birthday party for Lance's four-year-old son.

The next day Lance and his wife Rhiannon took the family to the zoo but did not invite Shane's two children.

Shane allegedly insulted his sister-in-law. So Lance gave Shane the silent treatment for a week.

Then the sideshow really began. The brothers and the wives sent each other abusive text messages and threats. The situation worsened when Lance was made captain of Carlton but didn't tell Shane, prompting more abusive text messages.

On February 28, Shane and Tammy, returning from a Queensland holiday, were apprehended by police at Melbourne Airport. Two days later, in Melbourne Magistrates Court, an intervention order was granted, prohibiting Shane and Tammy from contacting Lance and Rhiannon for 12 months.

The show might have ended there, but the tit for tat resurfaced on March 7, when Shane and Tammy applied for a reciprocal intervention order.

On Friday night Shane's home and car were vandalised with eggs and graffiti.

Shane blames someone indirectly linked to the dispute.

But yesterday, with the egg and graffiti removed from his home, Shane announced he would withdraw the application for an intervention order against his brother.

"Hopefully, now we can just lie low and get on with normal life," he said.

As his lawyer, Michael Kuzilny explained, it comes down to love. "Deep down there's still love for his brother," he said.