Former football great Sam Newman has launched another extraordinary attack on First Nations people and the AFL over “welcome to country” speeches before matches.
Newman urged Australians to boo the traditional ceremony not only at this year’s AFL grand final, but wherever it is publicly presented.
“If we take seriously the reception in our country and the nonsense that has suddenly taken over in the last 20 years from a completely innocuous introduction of Ernie Goofy a few years ago and people are are hanging there,” he said.
Sam Newman has major gripe with AFL over inclusion of welcome to country ceremony before matches
Newman called on Australians to boo the traditional ceremony (pictured) not only during the grand final, but every time it takes place.
“How about this, the next time you attend a public event like the grand final, a football match or any other public event in an auditorium, they will greet you by welcoming you to the country, will start booing… or slowly clapping.”
Newman doubled his lead when challenged by podcast Don Scott, co-host of You Cannot Be Serious.
“Because we don’t want to put up with it.” We’re not going to be patronizing,” he said.
“Of course it’s rude, and then who imposes this nonsense on us? Who tells us that we should be welcome in the country we live in, that we try to coexist, to coexist with all the people who came here , particularly indigenous peoples.
Newman said many First Nations Australians shared his views on the ceremony.
“There are so many people saying it and I still say it’s just pressure for reparations and financial power.” It is, and I say this, the next time you go to a football match, a final, and they are talking this nonsense, just start booing and it will stop (it),” he said. -he declares.
“The AFL should be absolutely flogged for whipping people into a frenzy over this. Patronize their whiteness by thinking they can virtuously dump all their sins on us.
“Honestly and truly, this needs to stop because it has divided the country more than anything. We want to be a group of people living together and respecting each other, Don. Start booing or clapping slowly or something like that.
Late Aboriginal icon Uncle Jack Charles (pictured) was honored at last year’s AFL grand final – leaving Newman furious
Former North Melbourne coach Dani Laidley (pictured at the 2022 Brownlow Medal ceremony) was also targeted by Newman during a rant about the AFL grand final.
This is not the first time Newman has attacked the AFL for its public recognition of First Nations people.
Just days after last year’s AFL grand final, he took a chance during the eulogy at the match for indigenous icon Uncle Jack Charles, calling him a “native criminal addicted to heroin.”
In a lengthy rant, Newman attacked the league for what he described as “righteous and condescending nonsense”, even taking time to insult former North Melbourne coach Dani Laidley.
“We had the native spectacle of nonsense. And then the only thing they didn’t have is maybe they could have put Dani Laidley in an open car and driven her to halftime in the back of a Jeep or something. something like that. I mean, seriously,” Newman groaned last year.
“The great last day was ruined by two things… this patronizing nonsense that we welcome the first landowners to this country.
“Absolutely, we admire and respect and thank the traditional landowners for where the game is to be played and we recognize that.
“But the self-righteous, condescending nonsense the AFL is running – a condescending campaign to feed this feigned outrage to distract from its own paranoid white privilege – all it does is drive a wedge between the football public, and yet we see clearly.”
Newman criticized the AFL for forcing football fans to watch not one, but two welcome-to-country speeches before the ball even bounced.
“A man with a beard came and told us… where the boundaries of all the different tribes are and everything. Just absolute propaganda talk for nothing,” he said.
“And then, if that wasn’t enough… then the CEO’s brother welcomed us to the country.”