Sam Newman makes bombshell confession about his call to boo Welcome to Country at the AFL Grand Final as he launches another attack on the ceremony

Sam Newman has surprisingly admitted that he would not boo the Welcome to Country ceremony at the Grand Final this weekend, despite urging AFL fans to do so.

Newman, 77, explosively called on footy fans to drown out the pre-match ceremony with jeers last week, but it had the opposite effect and supporters applauded instead.

There have since been calls for the broadcaster and former player to be booted out of the Hall of Fame. 

But despite doubling down on his scathing criticism of the ceremony, Newman said he won’t boo it during this weekend’s Grand Final between Collingwood and Brisbane. 

‘I wouldn’t boo at the grand final, but it was just a flippant throw away line, I disagree with the Welcome to Country at the grand final,’ he said on his podcast.

Sam Newman has made a surprising admission after his Welcome to Country comments

The former footy star called for the ceremony to be booed by AFL fans

‘My point is that every single thing you go to now, you go into a library, you go into anywhere at all, the whole thing starts with it.

‘The whole thing makes you feel guilty for being here.

‘When is it ever enough that we say ‘hang on a minute, this is enough, how much further do we want to keep going?’

Newman added that the Welcome to Country ceremony does not ‘unite us’.

‘I said last week that we should boo the Welcome to Country, it was an extravagant statement.

‘(The Welcome to Country has) gone overboard and the social elites are only trying to plicate their own white prejudice by feeling virtuous that they keep going on and on with this.

‘This is why I criticised the AFL, it’s just become a minefield of nonsense, they’ve got to pull it back.

‘(It’s) not uniting us, that is my point. Standing on the MCG on grand final day and saying ‘you’re welcome to the country and we give you permission to play on the ground’, that’s not uniting us.

He has doubled down on that stance but insisted he wouldn’t boo it himself

‘That’s showing the world that we are a divided nation, that’s my point.’

The former footy player was criticised by former premier Daniel Andrews and AFL chief Gillon McLachlan for his comments. 

Ahead of the upcoming Voice to Parliament referendum, Newman made his views as to which way he’ll be voting clear.

‘Kevin Rudd, when he was the prime minister, he apologised for what’s gone on,’ he added.

‘Why wasn’t that enough?

‘There’s 10-11 Indigenous politicians for two-and-a-half to three per cent of the Indigenous population.

‘Why do we need the Voice if there’s 11 people representing your people, our people?’