Sam Newman Did Nothing Wrong
There is another outrage campaign to have AFL Hall of Famer and no to the voice advocate Sam Newman cancelled because he called for the AFL Grand Final crowd to boo or slow clap the Aboriginal Welcome to Country on his You Cannot Be Serious Podcast. Sam Newman said nothing wrong.
Sam stated the fact that Welcome to Country ceremonies were invented by Ernie Dingo as a tourism gimmick in the 1970s: ‘If we are at all serious about the welcome to country and the nonsense that has suddenly taken over in the last 20 years from a completely harmless introduction by Ernie Dingo some years ago and people have latched onto it‘ What about this, next time you go to a public event like the grand final or a football game or any public event in an auditorium and they trot out the welcome to country, start booing … or slow hand clapping‘.
His podcast co-host Hawthorn great Don Scott disagreed but Sam said it was important for footy fans to push back ‘Who is telling us that we should be welcomed to [the] country that we live in, that we try and cohabitate, cohabit with all the people that have come here – particularly the indigenous people…The AFL should be absolutely horse whipped for whipping people into a frenzy about it. Patronising their whiteness by thinking they can virtuously cast off all their sins on us. Honestly and truly, it’s got to stop because this has divided the country more than anything. We want to be one group of people living together and respecting one another, Don. Start booing or slow hand clapping or something.’
Sam appeared on 3AW Mornings with Tony Jones who accused Sam of crossing some made-up line in the voice referendum debate and asked him if he was inciting violence with his comments and if he was a racist.
The 3AW talkback callers backed in Sam’s call for a boo reflecting r how sick and tired footy fans and mainstream Australians are with these Welcome to Country shows before the start of every Australian major sporting event.
Tony Jones later interviewed independent Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe who called Sam a racist and a misogynist and called on the AFL to ban him from attending all future AFL matches.
Outgoing AFL CEO McLachlan defended having Welcome to Country ceremonies before major AFL games ‘I’m not going to dignify those sort of individual responses out in the community other than to say I disagree very definitively’ and claimed ‘I think that our supporters know where they stand, they’ve been the proper football supporters who are at the games, (they) have been totally respectful.’
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews not surprisingly disagreed with Sam ‘When considering the perspectives of past footballers, I’d be more inclined to heed the words of Uncle Michael Long over Sam Newman. I’d choose Michael Long’s views every single day. Why would someone jeer at the most ancient continuous culture known to humanity? That’s not a moment for disdain. It’s a moment for celebration’.
Sam Newman began the You Cannot Be Serious Podcast in 2019 after finishing up as co-host of the AFL Footy Show at the end of 2018. Sam also tweets/posts at @Origsmartassam where he has been wearing a red no hat to promote the no to the voice vote which can be purchased on the podcast’s sponsor Michael Christian Menswear website.
What’s happening? A lot. Listen now to ‘You Cannot Be Serious’. pic.twitter.com/q0ECkxarv0
— Sam Newman (@Origsmartassam) September 20, 2023