Sam Newman

Sam Newman
Personal information
Full name	John Noel William "Sam" Newman
Original team(s)	Geelong Grammar School
Height / weight	189 cm / 94 kg
Position(s)	Ruckman
Career highlights
AFL All-Australian Team 1969 AFL Hall of Fame Geelong Club Champion 1968, 1975 Geelong Team of the Century (Ruckman) Representative honours Victorian Representative 8 times
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

John Noel William "Sam" Newman (born December 22, 1945 in Geelong, Victoria) is a retired Australian rules football player for the Geelong Cats and is now a local celebrity, television personality and part-time specialist ruck coach.

VFL/AFL career

Newman's entire VFL/AFL playing career was spent at Geelong. He played his first senior game for the club in 1964, having been recruited while still at Geelong Grammar School. Newman being a tall man, in his first four seasons he played with acknowledged ruck master, Graham 'Polly' Farmer.

As a player, Newman quickly distinguished himself because of his prodigious athletic skills, and the wide range of positions that he could play, in an era when players tended to specialise to a great degree.

In the 1967 finals series, he suffered a serious kidney injury in the first semi-final, and as a result missed the Grand Final, which Geelong lost to Richmond. He had part of one kidney removed, but returned to play the next season and win Geelong's Best and Fairest award.

During his 17 season career he played 300 games, primarily as ruckman. He played 41 games as Geelong captain before he was sacked from the job in a dispute with the club, and threatened to transfer to Richmond.

Football honours

He twice won club Best and Fairest (1968 and 1975), was selected All-Australian (1969), and played for the Victorian state team 8 times. He retired in 1980, having polled 100 Brownlow Medal votes throughout his career. In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame and has also been honoured as a "Legend of the Geelong Football Club".

In December 2005, Newman was appointed as ruck coach for the Melbourne Football Club to mentor players such as Jeff White, Mark Jamar and Paul Johnson.

Media career

Newman is an integral part of the AFL version of The Footy Show on the Australian Nine Network. One of Newman's best-known contributions to the show is "Street Talk", in which he interviews people around the streets of Melbourne on a topical issue. His interviews often contain sexual innuendo (especially when interviewing women) and mocking of the interviewees. Also, Newman is known for his continual defence of the Nine Network, and often takes the opportunity to mock the coverage from Channel Seven and Network Ten, given they have secured television rights for the AFL.

On "The Footy Show", Newman has a reputation for controversial antics, including:

• Having his chauffeur reverse his car into Trevor Marmalade's bar, destroying it.
• Wearing blackface after Aboriginal player Nicky Winmar did not appear as scheduled on that night's program due to car trouble.
• Publicly humiliating his teenage son in the 1997 grand final special for being a fan of the Adelaide Crows (Newman played for Geelong).
• Hitting David Schwarz in the face with a pie and being violently pushed by him afterwards.
• Getting punched in the stomach by Shane Crawford.
• Having his trousers pulled down by Crawford, exposing his genitals live to air.
• Exposing his genitals to the camera after stripping a la "The Full Monty" live to air.
• Drinking a full bottle of Jim Beam over the length of a show.
• Spraying Shane Crawford with a fire extinguisher after Crawford interrupted Sam's Mailbag.
• Getting sprayed with a fire extinguisher by Shane Crawford after he started discussing a newspaper article about model fire engines. Sam was later showed showering, returning towards the end of the show in a dressing gown.
• Antagonising guest panel member Jason Dunstall in a "Back to the 80's" special when Dunstall refused to show up in a retro outfit.
• Referring to James Brayshaw as dressing like a "girl".
• Chasing Shane Crawford with clear violent intent after Crawford appeared to draw on an Archibald Prize-entered portrait of Newman. It was later revealed to be a fake, much to the relief of the artist (and Newman).
• Undergoing a "nappy change" by Shane Crawford and Brendan Fevola, when Shane was disgruntled about comments Sam made about him not being a good father. He ended up being covered in talcum powder, and his underwear was doused with water.
• Annoying co-host Garry Lyon by repetitively showing Lyon writhing in pain on a stretcher after having broken his leg. The clip has aired many times, including being shown on a blimp outside the 2006 Grand Final edition of the show.
• Trying to simulate sex in a fake airplane toilet (due to the incident between Ralph Fiennes and former Qantas air hostess Lisa Robertson) noting how hard it would be to join the 'mile-high' club. The 'segment' first saw Sam try to "bonk" a mannequin and then a male midget dressed as an air hostess.
• Starting a 'fake' campaign to "bring the footy home" (back to Channel 9 from Channel 7) as he, believed that Channel 7's coverage of AFL games to be "absolutley shocking". Sam had badges and banners to aid his campaign, although he failed miserably in 'raising' funds.
• Being sprayed with a super soaker by Brendan Fevola.
• Constantly referring to Fevola's poor behaviour on field, which lead to Fevola to throw a fake (albeit real-looking) snake at Sam. Believing it to be real, Sam fled from his seat (to the audience's delight).
• Annoying guest panelist Jason Dunstall by referring to him as "Uganda's National Symbol" (the Silver Back Gorilla).
• Saying to panel member and Collingwood captain Nathan Buckley that "not even Moses could part her legs", in reference to his new wife, Tania.
• When a woman came up to him on Street Talk and told him how attractive he was, he simply replied: "well at least one of us is".
• Getting involved in a struggle with Jonothan Brown and Shane Crawford on air, where Brown lifted Newman and threw him into his 'Street Talk' Hall of Fame board, while Shane threw bottles of water at him. Later, Brown smashed one of the pictures from the board over Newman's head. Sam later retaliated by using a ladder to ram Brown out of his chair. Moderatley successful in his efforts, Sam took refuge behind co-host Gary Lyon.
• Mocking television personality and The Age writer Caroline Wilson regarding how she was dressed on Footy Classified three days earlier by bringing a mannequin model onto stage and stapling a cardboard cut-out of Wilson on the face of the model (the staple was through the cut-out's forehead) and 'experimenting' with different outfits. Newman then recklessly moved the model about. Wilson brought the issue up on Footy Classifed the following Monday, telling of her disappointment to both Wilson's and Newman's co-star Garry Lyon.

Newman's other media appearances have included the Sunday sports show Any Given Sunday in 2005.

On radio station Triple M, Newman previews Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches. He formerly provided special comments during AFL games, but on May 8 2006, was suspended indefinitely from that position for telling a talkback caller that he was a "fuckwit" after the Round 6 match between the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda.

This occurred two weeks after he walked out on a broadcast midway through a round 4 clash between the Western Bulldogs and Geelong, having expressed disgust at the style of football being played and the perceived quality of umpiring.

It should be noted that a great deal of people watch the Footy Show because of Sam's actions, deriving a "good laugh" from them. Numerous people have stated to Sam, during his 'Street-Talk' segment, that they watch the Footy Show because he "entertains" them and without him, the show would be "boring".

Tabloid celebrity & personal life

The house Sam Newman built in St Kilda, featuring an image of Pamela Anderson's face

Newman has been married three times and has also been linked to a number of other women:

• Australian model Imogen Bailey, but the two have refused comment to such rumours.
• Pamela Anderson, who is apparently 'just a good friend', although Newman erected a large image of her on the front exterior glass wall of his Melbourne home without obtaining council permission. However, he was later allowed to keep the artwork when permits were issued. The building later won architectural awards and is renowned as a St Kilda landmark.
• Jo Hall from Channel Nine.

Other reported incidents include:

• having his nose broken in a fight with an ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.
• having a female fan break a window whilst trying to break in to his Brighton house.
• being ejected from Perth's Burswood Casino for being drunk.
• In 1997 his leg was broken after it was run over by Leonie Jones, a woman 26 years his junior (who was pregnant with the youngest of Sam's three children, Max) eight days after he had clashed with another pregnant woman in a Brighton supermarket. Jones said in an interview with New Idea magazine that Newman had not bothered to see Max until three weeks after he was born.

In 2004, Newman was reported to have had plastic surgery, most noticeably a facelift.

In 2005, he bought a grey Lamborghini Murciélago, number plate KGB-000.

Cancer Diagnosis

On the 5th of March 2008 it was revealed that Sam Newman was in hospital, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. On March 6 he underwent a procedure at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne to have the cancerous prostate removed. Sam asked that television cameras from Channel Nine's news program 60 Minutes have full access to the procedure, as he believed it could help raise awareness of the issue amongst the greater public. Nine personality and close friend Eddie McGuire covered the story for the program.

The program went to air on Sunday, March 9. It contained footage filmed earlier that day, where Sam's urologist, Dr. Laurence Harewood, told Sam that the operation had been a success, and that he had been cleared of the cancer. Sam is now expected to make a full recovery.

See also

• The Footy Show
• Geelong Football Club
• Melbourne Football Club
• List of Australian rules football incidents

External links

• Sam Newman's profile on the official website of the Geelong Football Club
• Newman's "Legends Lunch" at GFC
• Player Bio at Full Points Footy
• AFL statistics
• Sam Newman at the Internet Movie Database
• The Trouble With Sam
• The Footy Show AFL official website
• Triple M website
• Google Video featuring Sam Newman being punched by Shane Crawford on the Footy Show