SAM Newman has slammed the AFL in a heated on-air rant on the Footy Show over its public support for gay marriage.

Newman’s assertion that the AFL had “no right” to get involved in politics and shouldn’t tell footy fans how to vote was criticised by former Hawthorn and St Kilda player Russell Greene, who has been publicly campaigning in support of his gay son.

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan also defended the league’s stance, saying the organisation was obliged to make a statement.

Newman’s editorial on last night’s show capped off a day of divisive debate on whether the league should have taken a public stance on the same-sex marriage plebiscite, including heated backlash against Carlton for not taking a position on the debate and AFL House being evacuated after a phone threat.

“Before I start this, I know it’s going to get hijacked (by) the predictable people who will say what it’s not,” he said on last night’s show.

“But if this was about the AFL putting Yes on the football about climate change, or save the whales, or greenhouse emissions or whatever, I would have exactly the same opinion.

“The very fact it’s about the Yes vote for gay marriage is irrelevant, so please don’t hijack this into somethig it’s not.

“But who in the hell are these people at the AFL who are telling the football public what they should do in their lives and who they should vote for in any political agenda — who are you?

“Who gives you the right to tell people and to put what people should do on the football.”

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McLachlan said he did not believe the AFL was grandstanding with its Yes stance.

“(Sam) will represent a number of views, I’m sure about that. I don’t think they’re the majority,” McLachlan told 3AW.

media_camera Sam Newman went all out on Thursday night's Footy Show.

“I don’t believe we’re grandstanding, I don’t believe we are political whores, I believe that on this issue, which we believe is discriminatory, we are obliged ... as an organisation to say what we think, not lecture people... make a discreet statement then get back to the footy.

“If we were out there campaigning and doing different things every day, or me going out there telling people how to vote, which I’ve never done, then I think he’d have a point.”

Russell Greene, who played 304 games with Hawthorn and St Kilda in the 1970s and 80s, said this morning Newman’s comments did not help anyone.

Greene appears on a full-page ad on page 2 of the Herald Sun today supporting the Yes vote, alongside wife Roxy and gay son Brent.

“The thing that Sam doesn’t realise is if you’re in the LGBTI community and you were watching that show last night it just puts a knife through a lot of people’s hearts,” Greene said on SEN radio.

“A lot of people out there haven’t come out yet and to hear and witness what happened last night would have made those people very insecure, more so than what they probably are now. Being through it with my own son there people in the LGBTI community need all the support they can get. All they want is to feel included.

“Everyone who has family involved in this just wants their family to feel secure, feel as though they’re part of society and not feel as though they’re second-class citizens.”

During last night’s rant Newman pulled out a copy of the same-sex marriage voting form, declaring: “For god’s sake, there’s a plebiscite going on in the country! What right have you got to say what people should be doing?

“You are nothing more than obsequious, fawning, sycophantic political whores.

“You have no right to get involved in political messages.

“Let people go to the football and do what they want to do: just watch the game.”

media_camera Magda Szubanski, Frank Sedgman and Russell Greene rally in South Melbourne. Picture: AAP

Newman continued: “Keep your contrived and conflicted snouts out of people’s lives and let people do what they want to do.

“It’s a release to go to the football. All you’re doing is virtue signalling and making yourself look grand when your overpaid executives make decisions on behalf of no-one.”

Co-host and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire rebuked Newman after his two-minute spray, firing back in support of the AFL’s decision to publicly back the Yes vote.

“Okay, you’ve had a good go,” McGuire said as Newman fumed.

“Now, let me put a counter to you. There’s an old saying ‘if you don’t stand for something you stand for nothing’.

“What we have in our world at the moment, Sam, is a leadership vacuum with politicians who don’t do anything unless there’s a vote in it.

“We have media who are running agendas to get whatever they want.

“We’ve got churches that have completely lost any credibility in what they stand for.

“But the AFL is an organisation that people do look to.”

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McGuire said he agreed with Newman’s stance on the AFL pushing political agendas but said they had the right to express their opinion.

“If you put to the AFL: ‘Do you stand for discrimination?’, they’d put ‘no’ up on the wall,” McGuire said. “Because the AFL stands by ‘it’s not what you are, it’s who you are’.”

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Newman said the AFL had no business in the matter and said its only job was to “run the game”. But Eddie wasn’t having a bar of it.

“If you’re a 14 or 15-year-old and you’re gay, you can come to a football club and be a part of it,” he said. “It’s just saying they are welcoming equality.”

Host Rebecca Maddern tried diffusing the awkward exchange, but Newman butted in over the applauding crowd.

“Shut up, Ed,” he said. “It’s nothing about gays, it’s about political agendas and the AFL has no right to tell people (what to do).”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull weighed in this morning, saying it was a matter for the AFL which causes it supported.

“I’m not going to tell the AFL or any other organisation how to run their affairs,” Mr Turnbull told 3AW.

“The AFL has always had a very forward leaning approach on social issues, whether it’s multiculturalism or reconciliation.

“They have always been a very socially progressive organisation and taken a strong stand on the same sex marriage issue for a long time.”

The AFL has previously supported campaigns against racism and street violence, and has promoted the cause of women and indigenous people in the game.

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