OPINION
Here’s something I never thought I’d say: I’m with Sam Newman.
For BFD readers who may be unaware, Newman is a former AFL footballer and long-time presenter on The Footy Show. On that show, Newman played the role of the blokey buffoon, the oafish clown, the loudmouth provocateur. In fact, he played the role so well that it was easy to detest him, as I did for many, many years.
I changed my mind some years ago, after reading a long interview with Newman. He stressed that he was, in public, playing a role. In the interview, he came across as charming and surprisingly intelligent.
And now, he’s outraging the woke left.
What’s not to like?
AFL boss Gillon McLachlan has emphatically hit back at comments made by Sam Newman encouraging Aussies to boo or “slow hand clap” during the Welcome to Country, particularly at the upcoming AFL Grand Final at the MCG.
Well, the man most responsible for the excrescence that is the WokeFL of today would say that, wouldn’t he? Under McLachlan’s stewardship, we have had to endure the “Pride round”, “Indigenous” round”, the “Marngrook game”, “Dreamtime at the G”… and, of course, the virtue-signalling of “Welcome to Country”, ad nauseam.
Newman doubled down on his comments in a fiery interview on Thursday morning while also taking aim at AFL legend Adam Goodes.
Cue the pearl-clutching from the luvvy set.
Appearing on 3AW radio, Newman was asked by host Tony Jones whether his suggestion was “inciting violence”.
Because slow hand-clapping is literal violence. Just ask an intersectional feminist on Tumblr.
“What an extraordinary question,” Newman said.
“The public have had a gutful of people telling us how to live our lives, particularly footballing organisations.
“We like to go to the football and watch the game without being told to vote for the gay marriage proposal … without being told to vote for the Voice. Why do they get involved?
“It is an absolute hoax, it’s a rort, the Welcome to Country. Why do we have to be welcomed to the country we live in? Why is that? It is just a mark of division.
“The people who welcome you to country get a nice stipend out of it. Why do they charge? It’s just a rort.”
He’s not wrong: even having a WTC at the opening of a local council meeting will set you back a few grand. For a big event like an AFL game, ol’ Aunty Noonuckle Paleface will be stuffing five figures of the white debbil’s cash in her lap-lap.
“My statement on the podcast was a provocative suggestion that people push back on this nonsense,” Newman said. “It’s cringe-worthy to have to watch.”
For good measure, Newman lobbed a few verbal grenades at SuperFlog himself.
He reiterated his view that the booing of Goodes in 2015, which led to the premature end of the AFL star’s playing career, was not motivated by racism and suggested no Indigenous player had ever been booed because of their race.
“Adam Goodes was booed because he pretended to throw a spear at the Carlton cheer squad after the Swans were beating them by 10 goals at halftime and wondered why people … people get booed on the football field, not because of their skin colour, but because of things they do,” Newman said.
“I know that, everyone knows that. Then the AFL waded into this and said, ‘Please don’t boo Adam Goodes.’ That’s like red rag to a bull.”
Newman isn’t buying any of the left’s standard indignant screeching of “waaaacist!”, either.
“I don’t think you know what racism is. Racism is about hate primarily and it’s if you defile, decry or degrade someone, think you’re superior than them or try to dominate them. It’s the most overworked word in the English lexicon at the minute … you tell me why anything I’ve said and what I’ve done is anything to do racism.”
News.com.au
If in fact, if there’s any racism here, it’s the racism of telling a grandstand full of people born and bred in Australia that it’s not their country.