UPDATE: A packed-out crowd at The Gabba has put its weight behind the emphatic message sent by a heaving MCG crowd on Friday night, with the Welcome to Country ceremony unifying the AFL against racism for a second night in a row following Sam Newman's inflammatory remarks.
The controversial AFL figure triggered uproar this week when on his podcast You Cannot Be Serious, he called for spectators to boo or "slow-hand clap" during the Welcome to Country ceremonies at the league's preliminary finals.
The former Geelong ruckman went further on The Opposition Podcast, calling for crowds to protest by singing The Seekers' anthem I Am Australian.
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The song features the lyrics, "We are one, but we are many", recognising Australia's multicultural society.
In response to the Welcome to Country ahead of Saturday's preliminary final between Brisbane and Carlton, the stadium was united as chants of "Aussie Aussie Aussie" echoed around the ground.
Aboriginal cultural specialist Shannon Ruska delivered the stirring Welcome to Country.
"As we have 300 different Aboriginal nations, we can't all speak the same language but we can do one chant, I think, that brings us all together," he said.
"This is Australian Rules [Football], so has anyone heard the chant 'Aussie Aussie'? Let's do it together."
Before Friday night's preliminary final between Collingwood and GWS, there was not a boo to be heard in the 90,000-plus crowd and throngs cheered and clapped.
Those in attendance will be among the millions of Australians who will vote in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice referendum on October 14.
They will have their say on whether the Constitution should be changed to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by setting up a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.
"Are we sick and tired of this?" Newman asked this week.
"I've been going on about this for a while now. I find it insulting and demeaning to be welcomed to a country where I live in.
"I have lived all my life here, I've paid taxes, I've contributed to it.
"Like everyone else we want to be united. One country.
"I don't know why we try to divide each other on race.
"I don't know why the Voice is even part of this narrative.
"And to say that I have to be welcomed to every single thing I step into: restaurants, churches, creches, fetes … It is out of control.
"It's exponentially getting worse and worse because no one will push back on it."
https://twitter.com/antsharwood/status/1705157120575033590?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Newman said drowning out the Welcome to Country ceremonies would be less divisive than the welcoming practice.
"If you want to have a song rather than boo people at the grand final or slow-hand clap … What about, 'We are one'?
"If I was going to advise people … Should they boo at the grand final? What about when all the Welcome to Country nonsense and crap starts? The crowd breaks into song, singing, 'We are one, we are many and from different lands on earth we come, and we share and we dream and our voice, we sing with one, I am you, you are, me, I am Australian'.
"What is wrong with that song? If people just sang that song when they started the Welcome to Country ceremony and drowned it out, it'd be probably better than booing."
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