Sam Newman backs down on controversial Grand Final plans
Sam Newman has remarkably backed down on his plans to boo during the Welcome to Country acknowledgement at the upcoming AFL grand final.
The former AFL star made waves last week as he called for footy fans to boo and drown out the traditional welcome by First Nations Australians, with many quick to call his plans "racist" and "disrespectful".
Newman even seemed to double down on his claims that the Welcome to Country was somehow more divisive that uniting, as some outraged Aussies even called for him to be removed from thew AFL Hall of Fame.
However, the 77-year-old has now quickly back-tracked his statements, saying he will not be booing during the Welcome to Country at the AFL grand final on Saturday.
"I wouldn't boo at the grand final, but it was just a flippant throw away line, I disagree with the Welcome to Country at the grand final," he said on his podcast.
"My point is that every single thing you go to now, you go into a library, you go into anywhere at all, the whole thing starts with it."
"The whole thing makes you feel guilty for being here."
"When is it ever enough that we say 'hang on a minute, this is enough, how much further do we want to keep going?'"
Newman again went on to say that he believed the Welcome to Country ceremony does not "unite us".
"I said last week that we should boo the Welcome to Country, it was an extravagant statement."
"(The Welcome to Country has) gone overboard and the social elites are only trying to placate their own white prejudice by feeling virtuous that they keep going on and on with this."
"This is why I criticised the AFL, it's just become a minefield of nonsense, they've got to pull it back."
"(It's) not uniting us, that is my point. Standing on the MCG on grand final day and saying 'you're welcome to the country and we give you permission to play on the ground', that's not uniting us."
"That's showing the world that we are a divided nation, that's my point."
Since Sam Newman's original statement, senator Lidia Thorpe has blasted his comments, saying he is missing the point on what the Welcome to Country is about.
"Sam Newman, I'm not sure why he's even in the news. He's irrelevant to any debate of the time," she said on Today.
"It's about peace. The whole message behind it is respect."
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