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AFL: The Eddie McGuire – Caroline Wilson saga has been a huge issue in the AFL and wider community this week.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says it has had an effect on the Magpies playing group.

Nine’s Cup Eve Party. Sam Newman. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

CAROLINE Wilson has fired back at Sam Newman, labelling him a “Neanderthal” after his scathing attack on Wednesday night’s Footy Show on the Nine Network.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw and All Australian selector Danny Frawley were at the centre of a public outcry this week after suggesting on Triple M that Wilson should be dunked and held under the water of the charity ice slide at the AFL’s Freeze MND charity match.

All three apologised publicly after the exchange was slammed as bullying and at odds with anti-violence against women messages. But Newman fired a broadside at Wilson in defence of his friends, calling her an “embarrassment” on The Footy Show on Wednesday night.

“I’m not surprised … the guy’s just a bit of a Neanderthal isn’t he?” Wilson told Adelaide radio station FIVEaa on Thursday. “He lives in the past, he’s missed the point completely with all of this as he has with so many big issues in footy in recent years.

Newman took aim at Wilson, but she wasn’t going to let it go.Source:AAP

“I don’t think he did Eddie any good at all with his comments … his lack of judgment as he’s got older has really baffled me.”

Newman took aim at Wilson in Wednesday night’s diatribe, accusing her of double standards.

“If you’re going to want to be treated equally, the point is, don’t complain when it’s too equal,” Newman said.

“The jig’s up Caro, honestly and truly. You’re becoming an embarrassment. And even if you were underwater, you’d still be talking.”

Newman also took aim at the people who were outraged by McGuire’s comments, repeatedly labelling them “excrement”.

“People want a little bit of logic and a little bit of fairness,” he said.

“If you search for a cause to fit a narrative, eventually you’ll convince yourself that you’ve stumbled onto something, as most of the cowardly excrement have.

“Those excrement who have weighed into this — I’d like to mention their names, but as nobody reads or listens to them because they’re on second tier media outlets I won’t bother. But if you spray excrement with perfume or put aftershave on a piece of excrement, at the end of the day, it’s still a piece of excrement.”

Nine’s Cup Eve Party. Sam Newman. Picture: Julie KiriacoudisSource:News Corp Australia

Wilson said that she had met with McGuire and accepted his personal apology over the incident.

It’s not the first time Wilson and Newman have been at odds, with the 70-year-old slammed for a skit on the show in 2008 involving a scantily-clad mannequin adorned with a picture of the Fairfax journalist.

“I think what he said about me was completely wrong but referring to people who’ve taken offence to this and written about it … as excrement, that really made me cross,” Wilson continued.

“This is what he did last time with the mannequin stunt. If that wasn’t bad enough he compounded the damage by making disgusting comments about women board members.

“That ended up costing Sam and Channel Nine hundreds of thousands of dollars, so he should be careful.”

— with Jason Phelan, AAP