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| Sam Newman | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | John Noel William Newman | ||
| Nicknames | Sam, Fossil, Foss, Sammy | ||
| Born | (1945-12-22)22 December 1945 (age 80) Geelong,Victoria | ||
| Original team | Geelong Grammar School | ||
| Height | 189 cm (6 ft 2 in)[1][2][3] | ||
| Weight | 94 kg (207 lb)[1] | ||
| Positions | Ruck, forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1964–1980 | Geelong | 300 (110) | |
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| Victoria | 8 (?) | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1980. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
Club
Representative
Overall
| |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
John Noel William "Sam"Newman (born 22 December 1945) is a formerAustralian rules footballer who played for theGeelong Football Club in theVictorian Football League (VFL).
A talented and athletic player who served his apprenticeship underGraham "Polly" Farmer, Newman became Geelong's mainruckman after Farmer departed at the end of 1967. He overcame a number of serious injuries during his career to become the first Geelong player to reach 300 senior VFL games.
After retiring in 1980, Newman served as a specialist ruck coach at various AFL clubs and had a notable media career, particularly with Melbourne-based radio station3AW and theNine Network as a panel member ofThe Footy Show, one of the network's most popular and often controversial programs.
Newman attendedGeelong Grammar School, where his father was a teacher.[4][5]
He made his debut for Geelong in 1964 when he was 18 years old.[6] Early in his time at Geelong he acquired the nickname "Sam", by which he is now usually known.[7]
After playing five reserves games forGeelong at the end of1963, Newman was selected for his senior debut in Round 3 of the1964 VFL season againstFitzroy atBrunswick Street Oval. During the first semi-final againstCollingwood in 1967, Newman suffered a serious injury which forced surgeons to remove part of his kidney. He was also selected as anAll-Australian player in 1969. He played for the Victorian state team eight times.
1980 was Newman's last season as a VFL footballer. In Round 4 againstNorth Melbourne atArden Street Oval, he kicked five goals playing as centre half-forward, four of those in the last quarter, in a 37-point win. Geelong coachBill Goggin praised his former teammate after the match: "He is such an inspiration to the players. They have told me that just having him out there with them gives everyone a lift".[8] Newman reached his 300th senior VFL game in Round 20 against Collingwood atKardinia Park.[9] Although he had a quiet game, the Cats achieved an 18-point win. As a point of note, sometime after the end of Newman's playing career, certain games were not recognised as official VFL/AFL matches and hence were removed from players' game tallies.
In 2002, he was inducted into theAustralian Football Hall of Fame.[10]
In December 2005, Newman was appointed asruck coach for theMelbourne Football Club to mentor players such asJeff White,Mark Jamar andPaul Johnson.
On 6 July 2010, Newman played in a charity match playing for Victoria in the annualE. J. Whitten Legends Game. He kicked four goals from four kicks and threemarks to be namedbest on ground, despite his team losing to the All Stars by seven points.
Newman joined radio station3AW as a football commentator in 1981 and continued with the station until the end of the 1999 season. He also appeared onWorld of Sport onChannel 7 for seven years from 1981 to 1987 and had a column inThe Sun News-Pictorial newspaper during the late 1980s.
Newman joined theNine Network in 1989, appearing on a sports segment onIn Melbourne Today withErnie Sigley andDenise Drysdale. In 1992 he was a reporter onMelbourne Extra, a short-lived local current affairs show.[11] He was a panel member ofThe Sunday Footy Show from 1993 to 1998.
Newman was onThe Footy Show (AFL) from when it first aired in 1994 until 2018 on the Nine Network.[12] He also appeared on the Sunday sports showAny Given Sunday in 2005, and co-hosted the short livedSam and The Fatman withPaul Vautin. On the radio stationTriple M, Newman previewed Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches. He formerly provided special comments during AFL games on Triple M, as well as 3AW. From April 2010, he was part of theMelbourne Talk Radio line-up, providing opinion and participating in talkback between 9.00 am and 9.30 am, during the Steve Price breakfast program. Newman quit the station in January 2012, after the breakfast producer censored Newman's profanity.[13]
In February 2018, he started apodcast with formerHerald Sun chief football writerMike Sheahan and former St Kilda coachGrant Thomas, entitledSam, Mike and Thomo. The podcast aired once weekly and covered all trending topics, with some AFL commentary. In March 2019 it was announced by Newman on social media that the podcast would be discontinued as he was perceived to make fun of transgender people on a prior episode of the podcast. However, in August he revived the podcast, starring Sheahan and former VFL footballerDon Scott, entitledSam, Mike & Don, You Cannot Be Serious.[14] It aired with this name until June 2020, when Sheahan quit for a second time due to the fallout of comments made by Scott about former AFL footballerNicky Winmar. It was then renamed toYou Cannot Be Serious.[15]
In December 2018,Eddie McGuire announced that Newman had signed a new multi-year deal with Nine; however,The Footy Show, of which Newman had been a part of with McGuire since the show started in March 1994, was replaced by a football show in a new format in 2019. Newman and McGuire were meant to host fourFooty Show "specials" in 2019, but upon it being announced in May 2019 thatThe Footy Show would no longer be aired, this was cancelled.
In June 2020, Newman announced that he would no longer appear on the Nine Network.
In March 2023, Sam Newman announced on theYou Cannot Be Serious podcast with Don Scott that their podcast had reached 10 million downloads on Podbean.[16]
Newman has regularly been a controversial figure during his media career, with some of his most controversial incidents onThe Footy Show being:
From one Australian to another Australian – I’m an Australian so is Adam Goodes – Adam you’re not important as you think you are and you take yourself far too seriously.
If you’re going to provoke people by the gesture of spear-throwing at a crowd, you better not be surprised if you get what you wish for and that’s a reaction.
Unfortunately you’re not well-enough equipped to deal with fracas and the saga that you’ve caused. You’re just not capable of dealing with it, hence the fact you’ve gone into hiding, you’re not playing anymore.
It is on you as anAustralian of the Year to unite and placate people, not to divide and be a provocateur.
How about the condescending nature of people who say if you’re an AFL fan and you go to the football and you boo Adam Goodes you’re a racist. How gratuitously stupid is that? I would suggest that the people boo Adam Goodes because he has turned their game into a political forum and people go to the football to get away from everything as a release, as an outlet and they don’t want to have to put up with a political statement.[21]
In 2019, Newman tweeted, "Criticizing someone from another race - doesn’t make you a racist. The groveling doco by Sharkshit [sic] Productions ‘The Final Quarter’, should be ‘The Last Straw’. Adam Goodes initially was booed for taunting Carlton fans. Racist? So be it. #racism #fakenews"[22][23] In 2023, Newman also commented regarding the historical booing ofAdam Goodes from a decade prior, saying: "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 half-time and wondered why people, people get booed on the football field, not because of their skin colour, but because of things they do."[24]
In June 2020, Newman arrived at a mutual agreement with the Nine Network to resign from the network after he stated in a podcast that whileGeorge Floyd died as a consequence of police brutality, Floyd's extensive criminal record meant he was a "piece of shit".[28]
The following week, Newman engaged in a conversation withDon Scott andMike Sheahan on the podcast in which they cast doubt that Nicky Winmar's famous jumper raise in 1993 was about Winmar responding to racism, with Scott and Sheahan instead suggesting that they believed it was to signify a "gutsy" effort. Winmar and photographer Wayne Ludbey took legal action against Newman, Scott and Sheahan, alleging defamation, with the parties reaching an agreement during mediation involving a formal apology and an undisclosed donation to an Indigenous charity.[29] Newman later said in an interview with sports journalistTony Jones that the fine/donation amounted to $100,000, which had previously been reported byThe Guardian.[30][31]
Newman's controversies continued even after being sacked from the Nine Network.
Newman had a brief career in motor racing. He began racing in1998 in Class C of theAustralian GT Production Car Championship, where he finished in 10th place in aFord EL Falcon XR8. In the1999 Australian GT Production Car Championship he raced aHolden Vectra GL to third place in Class D driving forGibson Motorsport. He then went on to finish in fourth place in Class D at the1999 Poolrite GTP Bathurst Showroom Showdown driving with Melinda Price. He drove the Vectra to fifth place in Class E in the2000 Australian GT Production Car Championship. He also raced aV8 Supercar at thesupport races at theAustralian Grand Prix in the same year. Running aGibson Motorsport preparedVS Commodore, he finished 25th, 24th and 23rd in the three races across the weekend.
In 2001, Newman raced aFerrari 360 Challenge for Prancing Horse Racing as a teammate to multiple Australian champions (in various categories) andBathurst 1000 winnerJohn Bowe in the2001 Australian Nations Cup Championship, finishing in 14th place. In the2002 Championship, Newman acquitted himself well and improved to finish 10th in the series
Newman's brightest moment in motor racing was when he put his Ferrari on pole position for the2002 Sandown 500.[41] Newman benefited in the Top 10 shootout for pole as he was the first driver on the track. Before the next driver went out, the rain came down and Newman ended up over 6 seconds faster than the 2nd placedPorsche 996 GT3 of racing legendJim Richards. Newman and co-driver Scott Shearman went on to finish the race 6th outright.[42]
With PHR Scuderia selling the 360 Challenge toMark Coffey Racing at the end of 2002, Newman defected to Team Lamborghini for the2003 Australian Nations Cup Championship and, driving theV12Lamborghini Diablo SVR andGTR models. He started the season in the later model GTR in Nations Cup Group 1 as team mate to another multiple Australian racing championPaul Stokell (who would win the 2002 NC title), but was bumped to the older Group 2 Diablo SVR whenV8 Supercars driverAnthony Tratt re-joined the team from Round 3 atWakefield Park and as a pro-driver was given the newer, faster car. Despite troubles, mostly in the SVR, Newman improved to finish 7th outright in the championship. He finished the series in 9th place in Group 1 and 3rd place in Group 2.[43] Although he drove a full season for Team Lamborghini in 2003 and that Tratt had left the team to concentrate on his other racing, Newman wasn't given a drive in the2003 Bathurst 24 Hour as the team only entered one car and signed race driversLuke Youlden,Peter Hackett and highly ratedDanish driverAllan Simonsen to join Stokell for the race.
After leaving motor racing at the end of 2003, Newman would again race in the 2009 and 2010 Mini Challenge Australia championships, both times at the Albert Park round in the Uber Star Celebrity Car.
Results sources from:[44]
| Season | Series | Position | Car | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Australian GT Production Car Championship Class C | 10th | Ford EL Falcon XR8 | Ross Palmer Motorsport |
| 1999 | Australian GT Production Car Championship Class D | 3rd | Holden Vectra GL | Gibson Motorsport |
| 2000 | Australian GT Production Car Championship Class E | 4th | Holden Vectra GL | Gibson Motorsport |
| 2001 | Australian Nations Cup Championship | 14th | Ferrari 360 Challenge | Prancing Horse Scuderia |
| 2002 | Australian Nations Cup Championship | 10th | Ferrari 360 Challenge | Prancing Horse Scuderia |
| 2002 | Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 2 | 2nd | Ferrari 360 Challenge | Prancing Horse Scuderia |
| 2003 | Australian Nations Cup Championship | 7th | Lamborghini Diablo SVR Lamborghini Diablo GTR | Team Lamborghini Australia |
| 2003 | Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 1 | 9th | Lamborghini Diablo GTR | Team Lamborghini Australia |
| 2003 | Australian Nations Cup Championship Group 2 | 3rd | Lamborghini Diablo SVR | Team Lamborghini Australia |
| 2010 | Mini Challenge Australia | 31st | Mini Cooper S | BMW Australia |
Newman lives inDocklands,Melbourne.[10] In 2002, he released a compilation album entitledI Do My Best Work After Midnight, consisting of 13 selections from other artists, as well as two songs sung by himself: "Witchcraft" and "I've Got You Under My Skin".[45] In 2008, he was treated forprostate cancer,[46][47] and he allowed Channel Nine's program60 Minutes to film the operation.[48] Following the operation, he was cleared of the cancer.[49]
He has been married four times. His last wife, Amanda Brown, died aged 50 in May 2021 despite Newman trying to revive her usingCPR for 20–30 minutes.[50][51] The two had been together for 20 years, only marrying in late 2020, about six months before her death.[52][53] Newman recorded an emotional tribute to his late wife on his podcastYou Cannot Be Serious.[51]
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