‘Insulting to fans’: Cats great Sam Newman savages ‘disgraceful’ Swans
Sam Newman has kicked the Swans while they’re down, blasting the Sydney-siders for a performance he called “insulting to fans”.
AFL
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The Sydney Swans admitted they felt “pretty embarrassed” by their 81-point AFL Grand Final capitulation to the Geelong Cats.
But while the Swans had been their harshest critics after capitulating on the biggest stage, outspoken Geelong legend Sam Newman has stuck the boot in.
Watch every match of the AFLW Season LIVE on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
Speaking on Channel 7’s Weekend Sunrise on Sunday, the 76-year-old who played 300 games for the Cats between 1964 and 1980 including two seasons as captain, was blown away by the performance of the Cats.
But he didn’t hold back from clipping the Swans performance.
“It was a fantastic effort by Geelong and I stayed until the end and watched all the revelry and merriment,” Newman said.
“Unfortunately it was a pretty ordinary game. The Swans were disgraceful. Not because they lost, but because ostensibly the game was over at quarter time and they played the most ridiculous football I’ve ever seen.
“It was almost insulting to the fans, the 100,000, they came down.
“But Geelong were absolutely supreme and fantastic. They treated it like a practice game and played accordingly. The entertainment at the start was fantastic.”
Newman did take aim at the two Welcome to Country ceremony’s and a eulogy to celebrated actor, musician, activist and Elder Uncle Jack Charles however.
Of the tribute to the Indigenous icon, Newman said: “We gave a eulogy to a man named Jack, who I have no idea what we did that. He does not play football to my knowledge.”
Such a beautiful tribute to Uncle Jack Charles at the @afl Grand Final#AFLGF#AFLGrandFinal#UncleJackCharlespic.twitter.com/OlTDqREFUv
— sam mostyn (@sammostyn) September 24, 2022
Uncle Jack was a prominent figure on NITV’s Yokayi Footy and was the voice of the 2022 AFL Finals ad campaign.
He died aged 79 earlier this month.
Newman said it was “a fantastic day for the Cats”.
“The people who went there, most of them would be tremendously disappointed with the standard of our game that was played yesterday,” he added.
“The quality of football that Geelong played wasn’t fantastic, but they were fantastic because they did what they had to do. Honestly, they treated it like a training run.
“When you have a side that is eight goals or 12 goals down, chipping the ball around and hand passing down the back line for whatever reason, I don’t know — whoever designed the game plan and decided the Swans would come down and play like that, they should have and play like that, they should have a good, hard look at themselves because it was a disgrace.
“Good on Geelong, a fantastic club led by a great man and some fantastic players. It was really enjoyable to see them win. But as a spectacle of our great Australia game, it was pretty ordinary.”
The focus after the game was nearly universally focused on the Cats win rather than the Swans loss but it was clear after the game Sydney was devastated by the result.
Speaking on the podium after the game, co-captain Dane Rampe was near tears but was praised for his comments.
“To our boys, bad luck today. So proud of your efforts throughout the season,” he said.
“We’ll be back hungrier and better for it next year. To our red and white supporters, both South Melbourne and back in Sydney, sorry we failed you today.”
Fellow co-captain Callum Mills told reporters after the game: “That was really disappointing. We were smacked in contested ball, didn’t play the way we needed to win. The hard part was there wasn’t much fightback and we feel pretty embarrassed to be honest.
“Us as leaders take ownership of that performance and we weren’t at the standard we needed to be on Grand Final day. It’s a bit shattering.
“We got a couple of things structurally wrong that hurt us with goals and we went away from the things that worked and they were the consequences.
“We feel like we’ve let our supporters and fans down, and the club as well. We’ll take our whack, which is deserved.”
Coach John Longmire also took the blame after he picked Sam Reid.
Reid looked injured and was subbed out of the game early in the third quarter for Braeden Campbell.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost a game like that,” he said.
“Normally, we give our supporters what I think is pretty good value for money. We just think physically, mentally, we didn’t give ourselves a chance today to do that.
“We really let ourselves down and our supporters down, no question. From the first bounce, the game looked as foreign as what we’ve played it this year. There’s no element that we got right.”
Originally published as ‘Insulting to fans’: Cats great Sam Newman savages ‘disgraceful’ Swans
Track watch: Young Roo justifying North’s draft gamble
Eyebrows were raised when North Melbourne paid a huge price to trade up for Matt Whitlock at the draft. But if his latest pre-season outing was any indication, it’s a gamble that is set to pay off. SEE FULL MATCH SIM NOTES.
AFLPA hits out at ‘name, shame and punish’ drugs system
The AFLPA has opposed a reported change to the AFL’s drugs testing system which it says would “name, shame and punish” players and reduce their anonymity.