Mike Sheahan quits podcast and apologises to Nicky Winmar

Angry, hurt phone calls from Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin convinced Mike Sheahan to quit controversial podcast.

Nicky Winmar’s iconic moment at Victoria Park in 1993 as captured by The Australian’s photographer John Feder

Angry, hurt phone calls from Swans stars Adam Goodes and Michael O’Loughlin convinced commentator Mike Sheahan to apologise for questioning Nicky Winmar’s motivations during his iconic “I’m black and I’m proud” moment as another witness came forward to back the long-accepted account of the incident.

Sheahan and fellow broadcasters Sam Newman and Don Scott cast doubt on the version of events during a recent podcast, claiming the star was saying he had “guts” when he raised his jumper and pointed to his skin after the match against Collingwood in 1993.

Photographer Wayne Ludbey and Winmar have launched legal action over the attempt to rewrite history and The Australian understands Sheahan’s apology will not see that withdrawn.

Sheahan said he was “shaken” by the controversy and announced on Tuesday that he had quit the podcast.

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Michael O'Loughlin and Adam Goodes convinced Mike Sheahan to apologise

“I’m not as accustomed as you to the fallout and the public scrutiny so it’s shaken me a bit,’’ he told Newman in his last appearance.

“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.”

Goodes, a dual Brownlow medallist, was driven from the game by relentless racial abuse at the back end of his career.

“When Goodesy rang me, and he’s almost the elder statesman of the indigenous players, he wasn’t angry and he wasn’t nasty, but he certainly was decisive and said a couple of things to me that really cut deeply, and I thought ‘well, again this issue of you don’t know what things mean to people unless you’re on the receiving end of it’,” Sheahan said on the podcast.

“I said to Goodesy ‘well Adam, I’m sorry about that, but I’d like to think I could turn any corner in any city in Australia and confront an indigenous player and we would welcome each other warmly’.

Sheahan and Ludbey both told The Australian on Tuesday they could not comment because of legal advice.

The podcast trio suggested the accepted version of events where Winmar raised his jumper, pointed to his skin and announced “I’m black and I’m proud” at the end of the game where he was racially abused was incorrect.

Ludbey, who was working for the Sunday Age at the time, took a photograph of the moment. The image was used to cast a statue of the event which was unveiled at Optus Stadium, Perth, in 2019.

Photographer John Feder of The Australian also captured the incident when working for the Sunday Herald Sun at the match. While Ludbey said he heard what Winmar said, Feder did not.

However, Feder clearly remembers arguing with his sports editor and others in the office about the meaning of the image which ran on the front page of both papers.

Mike Sheahan said he was shaken by the fallout to his controversial comments about Nicky Winmar Picture: Michael Klein

“They were saying that he was pointing to his stomach and saying ‘I’ve got guts’, but I was positive that it was racially motivated because of what happened that day, that is all it could have been,” Feder said on Tuesday.

“I can’t recall hearing what Wayne heard, he said he ran in and heard them saying it, but I was so positive back in the office about what the gesture meant. It was definitely a reaction to the racial abuse that was happening.”

Feder gave a similar account of the incident to authors Matthew Klugman and Gary Ormond in their 2013 book, The Story of an Iconic AFL Photo.

Winmar claimed that he and fellow indigenous player Gilbert McAdam made a pact that day to give their all because of the abuse. The pair defied the bigotry to be two of the best players on the ground in St Kilda’s famous victory. McAdam’s father, who had travelled from Alice Springs to watch the match left the ground in tears.

Newman recently parted ways with Channel 9 after attacking George Floyd, the man whose death has sparked the latest Black Lives Matter protests.

The former footballer, who once mocked Winmar by wearing black face when the footballer did not appear on the Footy Show in 1999, complained that it was he who was under attack.

“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.”