The Footy Show star Sam Newman talks candidly about fatherhood, football, feminists

FULL READ: THE Footy Show’s polarising host Sam Newman has revealed he is harshest on himself, after opening up on fatherhood, his disenchantment with footy and the show that made him a star.

SAM Newman’s cutting observations on The Footy Show are legendary but the Geelong great saves his harshest criticism for himself.

The thrice-married, thrice-divorced dad of three sons is as refreshingly candid in describing the responsibilities and challenges of fatherhood as he is talking about his disenchantment with the game that made him a star.

“I would probably say I’m not a great father because I’m not traditional,” Newman confides.

“I don’t show a hell of a lot emotion, I try and show it in different ways like giving tangible things rather than being tacit about it.

“But that’s the way you are, you can’t choose your parents — unfortunately, my kids would say.

“I’m mates with the two older ones (Jack and Geordan), the younger one (Max) is 19 and I have a different relationship with him because he’s at a different stage in life and another generation away from the boys I had earlier. We have a different relationship and view on things.

“This will be a cause for great celebration, there will be no more Newmans coming onto the planet because not only have I had the snip I’ve had my prostate out. So the world is doubly insured against me proliferating or producing any more mammals.”

Sam Newman and sons Jack and Geordan.

The words “charming”, “thoughtful” and “polite” don’t immediately come to mind when Newman’s name is mentioned.

But the Newman who sat down with the Sunday Herald Sun is worlds away from the polarising Footy Show persona that has been a fixture on our TV screens for 24 years.

Perhaps the 71-year-old Hall of Famer has mellowed with age, or maybe he was never as abrasive or rude as the image he’s portrayed.

TV newsreader Jo Hall has known Newman for more than two decades and describes him as “witty, generous, charismatic” and much misunderstood and maligned.

C-BOMB SAM DISMISSES EXPLETIVE PHONE RANT

Other long-term colleagues and friends speak of Newman’s loyalty, intelligence, kindness and integrity. Even off the record they are effusive in their praise of the 300-game champ.

Again, it’s poles apart from the reputation of the much loved and loathed Footy Show fixture.

Newman addresses this: “Reputation is who people think you are, and your character is actually who you are and where you came from, and the genes your mum and dad gave you, and your values and principles.

The Footy Show’s polarising host Sam Newman in one of his favourite places — on his boat at Docklands. Picture: David Caird

“People say, ‘Oh, you don’t have many values and principles’ but deep down I actually have, so that’s all you can do.”

Regular brushes with controversy see Newman the target of much invective from inside and outside the football media, with Sam-bashing a favourite pastime of certain columnists and bloggers.

But Newman remains unrepentant and vows not to change his ways to avoid the “outrage brigade”.

“There’s a competition going on in the world to see who can be the most aggrieved and who can be offended the most,” he said.

“I’ve got to the stage in my life where I don’t care about people who have agendas.

“I treat someone like (Footy Show co-host) Rebecca Maddern as a person and if I say something I would say to a man I would have no hesitation saying something to her as a woman. Maybe she appreciates that. I’m sure if you asked her, she’d say she appreciated it.

Newman in 1995.

Newman in ballet tutu on The Footy Show in 1995.

“But as soon as you start to have some adverse opinion about a woman or someone from another country or someone whose sexual preference is different to yours you get branded with those great three words; sexist, racist or homophobic.

“I refuse, and our show refuses, to be intimidated.”

But there’s no doubt that The Footy Show has taken a hit in the ratings in 2017, with new host Craig Hutchison turning off some viewers, though the program remains the most-watched football program.

For his part Newman still loves the show and the team behind it.

“I would walk away if I didn’t enjoy it … a third of your life is spent in bed, a third of it is spent working and a third of your life is spent in leisure,” he explains. “That’s eight hours each a day. If you don’t like the person you go to bed with or the person you work with, it’s a hell of a long life.”

DON’T ASK SAM NEWMAN ABOUT AFLW

Asked about the bad blood between former colleagues Garry Lyon and Billy Brownless — who fell out after Lyon’s affair with Brownless’s ex-wife Nicky came to light — Newman remains optimistic that time will heal all wounds.

Craig Hutchison, Eddie McGuire, Sam Newman, Rebecca Maddern, Billy Brownless and Tony Jones.

“They were very good friends and it would seem a shame in this middle stage of their life if they both don’t get over it and see it for what it was or wasn’t,” he said. “But if you are asking me for advice on relationships, you’re reaching pretty low into the barrel.”

After more than five decades in the public eye, Newman remains somewhat of an enigma.

He has long preferred solitude to crowds and says the playboy, party lifestyle is well behind him. “I play a bit of golf, not very good at it but play it. A bit of boating, that’s it. Very quiet, very pedestrian life,” he said.

Newman is content with life and ready for whatever the future brings whether it’s a stint in local government, continuing to needle the perpetually aggrieved or just spending his days sailing in Port Phillip Bay.

He is not one to plan and reluctant to rule out anything, even walking down the aisle again.

“Everything’s a possibility,” he says.

“I have no plans to do anything I’m just cruising along and taking things day by day. I’m not one of those people who have a goal in life, never have.

“I’m not successful, I’m just a survivor.”

[e-mail]