Sam Newman responds after pub cancels event because of angry backlash

Former footy star Sam Newman has lashed the “moral atrocity of wokeness” after an angry backlash cancelled his upcoming event.

Sam Newman has hit back after an event featuring the controversial former footy star at a South Australian pub was canned because of an angry backlash from locals.

The ex-Geelong ruckman turned media personality was supposed to take part in “An Evening With Sam Newman” at the Lady Bay Hotel in Normanville later this month but now has a hole in his schedule.

The Advertiser reported the pub changed its mind about the event after customers complained, prompting Newman to lament the increasing amount of “wokeness” in society.

“The vein solemnity of what is going on in the planet is extraordinary,’’ he told the Herald Sun. “Eventually people will say the gig is up.

“We’ve succumbed to this moral atrocity of wokeness.

“The majority of people will agree with what I say. The whole planet is revolving around corruption and hypocrisy.”

Slated to do a handful of shows, Newman speculated “they might get cancelled one by one”.

The manager of the Lady Bay Hotel, Steve Finlayson, explained on the weekend why the event with Newman was pulled.

“We just don’t like to be controversial, so when we started to get this sort of feedback, we made the decision to cancel the show,” he told the Sunday Mail.

“We’ve been booking cover bands which have been really well received, so I think we’ll be sticking to musicians.”

Newman is nothing if not outspoken.

Newman never far from controversy

Newman has never been far from the headlines and late last year took aim at a “woke society” he says ended his TV career last year.

The 75-year-old left The Footy Show in 2018, while Eddie McGuire also departed and the iconic program was revamped with an entirely new line-up. However, it was killed off completely midway through 2019 as ratings plummeted.

Newman opened up last year about how changes in society had essentially left his position on the program obsolete.

“From my point of view it had got away completely from what it’s main aim was in the first place,’’ Newman told the Herald Sun’s SACKED podcast.

“Even though the changing requirements and conditions of a woke society, of an enlightened world … and I’m not saying anything I haven’t said publicly to them so I’m not airing any dirty linen at all … but they threw the baby out with the bath water and I became marginalised to the fact that I wasn’t of use to them at all because the paradigm of the show had changed dramatically and it wasn’t suited to what I used to do.”

Among a host of controversial moments, Newman infamously wore blackface for a Footy Show skit about ex-Saint Kilda player Nicky Winmar and recently called American president Joe Biden “mentally retarded” on Twitter.

He also came under fire for calling American man George Floyd a “piece of s**t” after he died at the hands of police last year.