Jason Akermanis claims he has been ‘black-listed’ by the AFL competition, costing him up to $2.5 million

Jason Akermanis believes his controversial views have left him ‘black-listed’ by the competition. And the coaching hopeful reveals the conversation between him and a current AFL coach where he was flatly denied because of his reputation.

Listen to Jason Akermanis story on Sacked.

Jason Akermanis believes he has been “black-listed” by AFL football for a decade given his outspoken views, costing him around $2.5 million in potential earnings.

It comes as he reveals he suffered a mental health spiral after being sacked by the Western Bulldogs in 2010.

Akermanis says former All-Australian selector Chris Mainwaring told him his negative columns about the AFL’s conduct saw him miss out on All-Australian jumpers while at the Dogs.

Akermanis has always been a lightning rod for criticism but despite a successful coaching stint in country Victoria has been repeatedly knocked back for AFL assistant coaching jobs.

He said that West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson once admitted to him that he was not “a team player” so couldn’t find a role for him.

The 43-year-old is likely to move back to Brisbane from country Victoria, frustrated at how he is viewed by the footy establishment.

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“When you get black-listed like I was — and have been for 10 years — it is a tough pill to swallow. (Coaching) is something I could do asleep. Even when I coached I was amazed at how (I could) read the field right in front of me and how quickly it could be fixed, because that’s what happens when you are brought up and it is in your blood,” he said.

“I know what (the issue) was because I rang Adam Simpson.

“I got on well with Adam and we played together for Australia and when I ran into him he said, ‘Oh, Aker, we don’t have a job for you now but all I will say to you is in a footy club like this we want team players’.

Jason Akermanis believes he been blacklisted by the AFL system. Picture: Michael Klein

“So I thought right there and then that was the expectation that I am not a team player, but I survived 16 years of Aussie rules and played my whole life in teams sports, but that must mean because I had different hair and didn’t quite agree occasionally with what someone says, is that I am not a team player.”

When asked how much his controversial views and bitter fallout with the Brisbane Lions and the Western Bulldogs had cost him, he estimated “$2 million or $2.5 million.”

He says that might have been different if he had retired from football at the end of the 2009 season.

Akermanis believed he was bullied out of the Western Bulldogs, with two players giving the hierarchy an ultimatum that they would not play with him during the turbulent 2010 season.

He was eventually sacked after writing a contentious column about gay footballers and a leaking controversy when radio host Steve Price overheard an Akermanis comment that he passed on to The Footy Show’s Sam Newman.

Asked about the mental downward spiral, Akermanis replied: “I am still in it. It’s ten years. When you get ostracised from an industry. I went coaching but it’s been a hard place mentally when you know I really should be doing this. It’s what I am best at and I am forced to do everything other than this.”

“I got sacked. The experience says if you stand up for yourself or what you believe in, whether it is Israel Folau or myself, they are like, “You can cop it”.

Akermanis claims Adam Simpson said he wasn’t a team player. Picture: Getty

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Four-time All Australian Akermanis missed selection in the 2009 and 2010 teams despite 49.28 and 43.35 and says his provocative columns ruffled feathers at AFL House.

“Damian Barrett, who is a great mate of mine, was like, ‘How does this guy not get into the All Australian team?’ I was writing in the Herald Sun and I was writing negative stuff about the (AFL) procedures and they were having a sook.

“They were having influence with the All-Australian team, which I later found out from the man who passed away in Chris Mainwaring. He was good because he was on my side. He told me that point blank. Say what happens and you get done by politics. But in the past he had overridden that and said, ‘This guy should be in’.

“You know, it’s the system. The people when you go after them or be a bit critical, you can’t beat City Hall.”

Originally published as Jason Akermanis claims he has been ‘black-listed’ by the AFL competition, costing him up to $2.5 million