Greg Martin calls for AFL final to be about the team

TEMPERS flared when commentator Greg Martin took a stab at one of the more personal moments of the AFL Grand Final celebrations.

floodfund cm214599 Greg (Marto) Martin from MMM and Katherine Aughterlonie from the Fox hotel

KNOWN as one of the most outspoken commentators in the world of rugby, Greg “Marto” Martin has taken pot shots at the AFL following Hawthorn’s Grand Final celebrations.

Speaking on the Back Page Live, Martin let loose after footage of Hawthorn player Jordan Lewis carrying his six-day-old baby out onto the field during the post-match presentations.

“It’s about you and your teammates at that stage. Did you notice the NRL, they were all on the stage, all with their teammates. Then when they did their lap they went and grabbed their kids,” Martin said.

“The AFL guys, the Hawthorn guys, were too quick to grab their kids.”

“Sam Mitchell took three kids up on the stage to go and meet the AusKick kid, it was too much, there’s no need. Make it about the team and then do your lap of honour with your kids.”

Back Page Live co-host Kelli Underwood disagreed with the former Wallaby, noting Hawthorn’s family culture as instrumental to their long-term success.

“I completely disagree. Only because it is such an old-school view — because Hawthorn has built its success around its culture,” she said.

In an back and forth affair, the pair continued to clash, and Martin, unsurprisingly, stuck firmly to his guns.

According to Marto, Lewis should have left baby in the corner.

“Well go back to Glenferrie Road and sort it out afterwards,” he said.

“It took forever. It’s like the bloody Brownlow, it takes too long, the ceremony, after the game.

“There is room for it. But not right then when the official ceremony is about you and those 20 other blokes you played all season with.”

Underwood added a slightly more level head to the conversation — something it seems the Hawthorn club have been instilling in their players.

“But they have an all-inclusive culture and nature, and this is where the success has come from. Because it’s not just ‘live in a bubble’, it’s ‘family is first, family is everything’,” Underwood said.

“It gives them perspective and why not share it with all of them?

“Hawthorn is called ‘the family club’.”

While the pair agreed to disagree, it is fair to say Martin may be better off leaving the trash talk to a sport he has a little more expertise in.

Originally published as Greg Martin calls for AFL final to be about the team