SOUTH Australian teacher Nick Iadanza has come out in support of the so called “mean girls” alliance on Australian Survivor as he leaves the show.

Iadanza, who had a target on his back for most of the 37 days he was on the show in Samoa, said Victorian Brooke Jowett and Queenslander El Rowland are strong players, not mean girls.

Jowett and Rowland, alongside fellow Queenslander Flick Egginton, have a firm hand on the game which has led to some online criticism.

“Any hate they get is completely misguided,” he said.

“They are wonderful people.

“They are strong, smart women and they are in a position where people are coming to them and offering up information, that is amazing.

“This whole mean girls thing is utter rubbish.

“They were never mean to anyone, they were just strong women who were in a position of power.”

media_camera Nick Iadanza during camp discussions during the tribal council which saw him evicted. Picture: Nigel Wright / Network Ten

There is no doubt that Iadanza, 27, was one of the most talked about contestants on Australian Survivor, both when filming was happening on the Island, and now that the series is airing on Channel 10.

He polarised people from the beginning, but he makes no excuses for his behaviour and has no regrets.

“Nothing anyone could say, or has said, could ever take the excitement of how proud I am about my experience,” he said.

“I am still that geeky little 12-year-old who started watching the show all those years ago, who made the vow I was going to get on the show one day and I did that.”

Iadanza said he is happy with his experience because he did everything he possible could to make it as far as he did.

media_camera SA Survivor contestant Nick Iadanza with some of his students at Prince Alfred College. Picture Campbell Brodie.

“I never imagined in my life, the night that I went home, that I would be relaxed and happy,” he said.

“I gave Jonathan a hug.

“Seeing my torch snuffled out was actually really exciting.

“I left with a big smile on my face, I thought you would have had to have dragged me out kicking and screaming.

“I felt like I was pushing it up a hill since day 12, and any day after that was a bonus.

“I feel like I ran the gamut of all the different things I could do to try and stay.

“I had done everything I could.”

Iadanza ended up getting eight votes in the tribal council, with West Australian grandmother Sue Clarke getting the other three.

He failed to win the support of Sydney charity CEO Sam Webb who drove the vote, despite making inroads after last episode’s fiery tribal council.

“Sam is someone who has got this really successful life, and I think he is someone who has never really had anyone say no to him,” Iadanza said.

“I often kind of stood up to him and said, hang on a second, why are we doing it this way?

“I think he was taken aback by my approach.

“He also spent that time in Vavau after I had been voted out, and everyone over there got in his ear and he never changed back.

“That’s the way it goes.”

Iadanza was accused of being a “snake” by Webb, but he maintains that label was unfair.

“I’m not sure what it was that I was doing, and lying about,” he said.

Tonight’s Australian Survivor was an emotional episode, when five of the remaining 11 getting to read letters from home which led to most of them breaking down in tears.

media_camera Nick Iadanza’s last moments on Australian Survivor. Picture: Nigel Wright / Network Ten

SURVIVOR VOTES:

Vote for Nick Iadanza: Kristie Bennett, Sam Webb, Jennah-Louise Salkeld, Brooke Jowett, Flick Egginton, Kylie Evans, Sue Clarke.

Voted for Sue Clarke: Nick Iadanza, Matt Tarrant, Lee Carseldine.



Originally published as Iadanza shown the road