He took his leave from TV screens last month amid a storm of derision over his attitude towards woman. But the AFL
Footy Show's Sam Newman last night stepped back into the spotlight in typically unrepentant style.
Late last month, Newman was ordered by the Nine Network to take an indefinite break.
He was urged to seek counselling after almost two months of controversy as he recovered from surgery to remove a cancerous prostate.
The former VFL star sparked outrage in March when he manhandled a lingerie-clad mannequin on which he had stapled a picture of
The Age newspaper's chief football writer Caroline Wilson.
Last night, Newman entered the stage through a wall of flame and smoke, dressed as the devil - clad in a back shirt, black pants, a black cape and a red tie and clutching a
Bible. The Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy For the Devil' played as two dwarves, dressed as demons, led him to his desk.
Newman introduced them as his analyst and therapist.
"I actually feel cleansed, Garry,'' he said to host Garry Lyon.
"You heard of (American evangelists) Jimmy Swaggart, Jimmy and Tammy Bakker? They said: 'Just walk with Christ whenever you go anywhere'. He said: 'Go out to your balcony sand just stand out on it and yell I have sinned'.
"And you just feel cleansed. I feel refreshed, and I have learned a lot about myself, Gaz.''
Newman next took a swipe at his legion of critics, pulling a white flag from under his desk.
"This is an opinion flag. If I have an opinion, I will wave this so you know it's an opinion, and opinions can't be wrong,'' he said.
"If I think you are a prick, that is an opinion.''
Newman, who played 300 games for Geelong before his retirement in 1980, refused to apologise immediately after the mannequin stunt.
Instead, he chose to attack the role of women in senior AFL positions.
As the controversy rolled on, the Nine Network faced a rebuke from advertisers including the ANZ Bank and mobile phone retailer Crazy John's as viewers, particularly women, turned away from the program.
Ratings peaked again on May 29, after Newman's enforced leave was announced.
But ratings have since fallen away again, with 352,000 watching in Melbourne last week compared with the 2008 peak of 465,000.
When Nine's Melbourne managing director Jeff Browne announced Newman's break, he said the star had not been given a long enough break following his brush with cancer and subsequent surgery.
- Article take from TheAge.com.au.