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John Noel William "Sam" Newman (born December 22, 1945 in Geelong, Victoria) is a retired Australian rules football player and current television personality. He is a featured star of the AFL version of The Footy Show.

Football career

Recruited straight from school, Newman made his debut for Geelong in 1964 and was fortunate to have "Polly" Farmer in the side as a role model. During the first semi-final against Collingwood in 1967, Newman suffered a serious injury that forced surgeons to remove part of his kidney, but he bounced back to win club Best and Fairest in 1968 and 1975. He was also selected All-Australian (1969), and played for the Victorian State team eight times. Newman retired in 1980, having polled 100 Brownlow Medal votes throughout his career. In 2002, he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

In December 2005, Newman was appointed as ruck coach for the Melbourne Football Club to mentor players such as Jeff White, Mark Jamar and Paul Johnson.

Media career

Newman has been a regular on the AFL version of The Footy Showsince it first aired in 1994 on the Australian Nine Network. He acts as sidekick and resident clown. He regularly hosts "Street Talk", a vox populi segment in which he interviews people on the streets, usually in Melbourne, as well as Sam's Mailbag where he reads out random correspondence, shows funny footage, and the occasional lookalike of Garry Lyon(co-host).

His other media appearances have included the Sunday sports show Any Given Sunday in 2005, World of Sport, The Sunday Footy Show and also co-hosting the short livedSam and The Fatman, with Paul (fatty) Vautin. On radio station Triple M, Newman previews Friday night and Saturday afternoon matches. He formerly provided special comments during AFL games, on Triple M, as well as 3AW previously.

Personal life

Newman attended Geelong Grammar^[1]. His father's aim for him was to become a barrister. His mother and two older sisters all disagree with his on-air personality and prefer to call him by his 'birth' name of John. ^[2] He has known his best friend, Kevin King, since his early playing days for Geelong, meeting him while surfing on the Victorian Coast.^{[citation needed]}

Newman's former house built in St Kilda, featuring an image of Pamela Anderson's face

Newman currently lives in an apartment in Melbourne's Docklands ^[3] where he also berths a luxury yacht. He also owns four vintage cars and a warehouse. ^[4] He took up driving in the Nations Cup series in the late 1990s in Lamborghinis and Ferraris.^[5]

Newman has been married three times, and has three sons, aged 11, 26 and 30. ^[6]

Controversy

Sam has been involved in several incidents of public controversy. Reports indicate that Newman is deliberately controversial, and that his on-air persona is nothing like his true self.^[7] Particular incidents include:

• 1997 - Newman's 25 year old girlfriend Leonie Jones drove his own car into him outside his house, breaking his leg and an ankle.^[8]
• 1999 - On The Footy Show Newman blacked up his face to impersonate indigenous footballer Nicky Winmar, at a time when racial vilification charges were being levelled at certain AFL players.^[9]
• 2005 - A female fan broke a window whilst trying to break in to his Brighton house.^[8]
• 2008 - Mocking television personality and The Age writer Caroline Wilson regarding how she was dressed on Footy Classified three days earlier by bringing a mannequin model onto stage and stapling a cardboard cut-out of Wilson on the face of the model and 'experimenting' with different outfits. Newman then recklessly moved the model about.^[10] Wilson brought the issue up on Footy Classified the following Monday, telling of her disappointment to Newman's co-star Garry Lyon.^[11]
• 2009 - The Nine Network and Newman were sued for defamation by a female board member of the Western Bulldogs football team after he said on air that she was a "liar" and "hypocrite". They settled for $220,000 plus costs.^[12]

Cancer diagnosis

On 5 March 2008 it was revealed that Newman was in hospital, undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.^[13][14] On 6 March he underwent a procedure at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne to have the cancerous prostate removed. Newman asked that television cameras from Channel Nine's program 60 Minutes have full access to the procedure, as he believed it could help raise awareness of the issue amongst the greater public. Channel Nine personality and close friend Eddie McGuire covered the story for the program.

The program went to air on Sunday 9 March. It contained footage filmed earlier that day in which Newman's urologist, Dr Laurence Harewood, told him that the operation had been a success and that he had been cleared of the cancer. Newman is now expected to make a full recovery.^[15]

See also

• The Footy Show
• Geelong Football Club
• Melbourne Football Club
• List of Australian rules football incidents

References

External links

• Player profile on the Official AFL Website of the Geelong Football Club
• Newman's "Legends Lunch" at GFC
• Player Bio at Full Points Footy
• AFL statistics
• Sam Newman at the Internet Movie Database
• The Trouble With Sam
• The Footy Show AFL official website
• Triple M website
• Google Video featuring Sam Newman being punched by Shane Crawford on the Footy Show
• Sam Newman in hot water over Footy Show stunt