Mike Sheahan quits You Cannot Be Serious podcast, Newman vows to continue
Sam Newman claims he doesn’t set out to be “intentionally controversial” in his issue-plagued podcast, and he and ex-Hawks player Don Scott will push on despite Mike Sheahan’s recent departure.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Sam Newman says he will push ahead with his You Cannot Be Serious podcast, and is on the lookout for a third person to join him and Don Scott, after Mike Sheahan quit this week.
“Of course we’ll keep doing it and hopefully we’ll add another,’’ he said.
“I’m not sure why some people would suggest we don’t do it.
“We chat about things that are topically interesting. We don’t set out to be deliberately controversial.”
Newman said he still hopes to meet with Winmar and his team this week to discuss the controversy of last week’s podcast when Newman, ex-Hawthorn player Scott and Sheahan were threatened with legal action after discussing Winmar’s iconic 1993 jumper lifting gesture.
During his final appearance, Sheahan said he was shaken by the fallout and apologised for the hurt he caused to the Aboriginal community and his friends.
Newman announced the “sad, sad news” of Sheahan’s departure and “death of a star” on his social media channels.
“I’ve had fun, it’s been good,’’ Sheahan said in a video.
“But time to just sail off into the sunset.”
Newman, appearing alongside Sheahan and Scott, said: “This is the swan song for magic Mike. He’s bailed. His bases got to him and they’ve said why are you associating with this clown, and me, and he’s out. So it’s just Don and I chatting about the affairs of everything.”
Newman added tongue in cheek: “Weak as p-ss he is.”
Sheahan said he was coming from a moral standpoint.
“I’m not as accustomed as you to the fallout and the public scrutiny so it’s shaken me a bit,’’ he said.
“The thing that worried me most is I definitely did hurt some people who I regard as football friends. Indigenous people, indigenous players, who I have a healthy relationship with, they were hurt and angry. Adam Goodes rang me and was clearly hurt and a little angry about what I’ve said. Mick O’Loughlin and I spoke.
“I don’t like unnecessarily hurting people. I’m speaking for me here. I think I see myself through their eyes as attacking an Aboriginal monument in football. I genuinely feel they were hurt by what I said.
“This is the forum where we discussed the issue initially and this is the forum where I should say I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you guys.”
AFL legend Winmar and Mr Ludbey, who captured the iconic moment, engaged lawyers following the airing of the group’s podcast last week, in which they discussed whether Winmar’s move had anything to do with race at all.
“I know what I did, I am not a liar,” Winmar told the Herald Sun last week.
“These white fellas are tarnishing my legacy.”
The three men suggested in their podcast that the moment — immortalised in a bronze statue at Perth’s Optus Stadium — was not in response to the racial vilification Winmar had received during the match against Collingwood, but was instead referring to the footballer playing with “heart” and the pointing to his stomach symbolised a “gutsy effort”.
Scott suggested Winmar was “dining out” on the celebrated moment, with Newman adding the incident had “just morphed into all that other by activists”.
Mr Ludbey has confirmed he has engaged Leon Zwier of law firm Arnold Bloch Leiber, alongside Winmar.
“I’ve never deviated from my original story,” Mr Ludbey said.
“Nicky was responding to racial vilification and he said. ‘I’m proud to be black, I’m proud to be black’.
“I couldn’t be any firmer in what I heard.”
Newman said on the podcast that he didn’t intend to cause offence and hoped to meet with Winmar this week.
“We were discussing the photo and what the various scenarios of it were. And now, since we’ve had that discussion a huge and giant kerfuffle has broken out about whether what we thought we were talking about and what Nicky Winmar has taken exception to,’’ Newman said.
“Could I say that we meant in no way to cause any offence to Winmar and his team and now at this stage there are lawyers and attornies and QCs involved. Standing like the OK Corral at 10 paces waiting to see what happens next.
“We hope to meet with Mr Winmar later in the week or at a time convenient to him and his team to sort this out because we have no ulterior motive in trying to cause any offence at all. “It was a light hearted conversation we thought which he has taken exception to.
“We’re trying to resolve the matter in the best interests of all us.”
Newman said he was accused of being racist every time he discussed a topical subject.
“We speak about hundreds of topics, the only time it seems to be controversial is if we speak about one of the main topics that’s going on around the world and in this country at the minute. And it’s about race. And every time we speak about race I get accused of being racist talking about topical issues that we think people are interested in.
“Every time we discuss things about race we are called racist. They’re the main topics going on in the world. I get marginalised and cancel cultured because I try to speak about it and try to speak about it sensibly.”
This all came a week after Newman’s three-decade career with Channel 9 ended over his comments about George Floyd, the American killed by police in Minneapolis and whose death ignited protests and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Ex-footballer and TV personality Newman, 74, had described Floyd as “a piece of shit” and a “crackhead” in reference to Floyd’s criminal record. He also condemned the police brutality.
READ MORE:
PHONE CALL ENDED NEWMAN’S TIME WITH NINE