ZBlogL

Sam Newman has taken aim at current day athletes with a scathing rant.

Newman’s blistering attack comes in the wake of Australian netballers taking a stance against major sponsor Hancock Prospecting and Australian cricket skipper Pat Cummins raising concerns over Alinta Energy.

Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Netball Australia is scrambling to mend the divide between the team and its new major sponsor with a $15 million partnership with the mining giant sparking major player backlash.

Cummins raised his concerns over Cricket Australia’s $40 million partnership with Alinta Energy, saying he will not feature as an ambassador for Cricket Australia’s biggest financial backer.

Newman, appearing on Sky News’ The Kenny Report, started off by stating he wouldn’t wear a certain sports jersey if he didn’t agree with what was emblazoned on the front, but said “the price of being virtuous, is hypocrisy”.

The AFL great said it’s unreasonable and unrealistic to think sports could continue without money from either the mining or energy sector being involved.

“If you think fossil fuels are going to disappear in the very near future then you’re mistaken because that’s the end of the civilised world as we know it no matter what you think of climate and no matter what you think of global warming,” he said.

“I notice one of the netballers said they weren’t happy with Hancock because of their climate record, I mean seriously the world we live in is being run by patronising and pompous, arrogant people who have no idea really what they’re on about.”

The former Geelong star labelled the netballers, standing up against Hancock Prospecting, as being hypocrites.

“We have people with low IQs telling a sporting body which is on its knees financially that they won’t accept money from sponsorship deals from a company which I’m sure that those people who are complaining use one of those products indirectly or directly that Hancock Mining or Hancock industries have fabricated on a daily basis,” he said.

At the root of the protest for Netball Australia is said to be comments made by Lang Hancock regarding Indigenous Australians.

In the 1980s, Ms Rinehart’s father, late mining magnate Lang Hancock, infamously suggested that Indigenous Australians should be sterilised to solve “the problem”.

“Those that have been assimilated into, you know, earning good living or earning wages amongst the civilised areas, those that have been accepted into society and they have accepted society and can handle society, I’d leave them well alone,” he told a news broadcast.

“The ones that are no good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes — and this is where most of the trouble comes — I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in future and that would solve the problem.”

Newman however says those comments shouldn’t be reason to walk away from Rinehart’s sponsorship, stating the mining magnate should pull her money and walk away.

“For the netballers to arch up at not taking sponsorship dollars from Gina Rhinehart who is guilty by association from her father who I think made those comments whatever they were I think 40 years ago seems ludicrous,” he said.

“If I was Gina Rhinehart I would take my $15 million and say ‘stick it’.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ70qmmq6xfo7K1rsClo2irkaJ6r7HWppinZaWjubCtw6xkqK6Vp3q0vM6nqqiqXaW%2FsMDErKusZZKueqLAx6WcrZ2jZLumw9Jmqq2noq58eoGYnWybamSbfaeuwJ2dm21lloF1fo9va51wkmaup38%3D