- GWS Giants skipper had near-death experience
- Blames himself for putting his life in danger
Toby Greene has opened up about how a ‘stupid’ and ‘arrogant’ split-second decision almost saw him drown while he was surfing in Bali on an end-of-season holiday.
The GWS Giants skipper is a keen surfer and his love of catching waves left him close to death when he decided he knew better than the locals at a break in Bali.
‘We were staying on this beach and I’d noticed there were these little rocks that you could walk across,’ he told Triple M.
‘I noticed all the gun surfers were out surfing on the other side of this point and I thought, “I wonder why no one had paddled out from my side, I’ll just do that because it’ll save me time”.
‘So I paddled out, misread the break and how big they [the waves] were, and that the reef was 30 centimetres deep, and I had these eight-foot waves hitting me and blasted my board onto the rocks, so that was gone.
‘The [lifesaver on] the jet ski was yelling to swim sideways because I can’t get to you, he was trying to save me.
‘I got under a few waves and told myself, “Don’t panic, because you’ll die”.
‘The jet ski came and picked me up and he said, “Mate, that’s as close as I’ve seen to someone perishing here”.’
AFL star Toby Greene (pictured with partner Georgia Stirton) came close to dying when he went for a surf on the first day of his end-of-season Bali holiday
The GWS Giants skipper (pictured with Stirton and their daughter Isla) confessed he almost died because he made an arrogant decision about how to paddle out into the surf
Greene told hosts Billy Brownless and Anthony Lehmann he was ‘arrogant’ to paddle out the way he did.
‘It was just stupid, what I did. It was day one [of the holiday] and I just got excited.’
Footy fans recently rallied behind Greene when he was caught up in the Giants’ Wacky Wednesday party scandal.
The AFL launched an investigation after an anonymous complaint was made about the behaviour of several stars ad their ‘troubled couples’-themed party outfits.
The event had been held at a private room in a pub and had seen players from the team perform ‘unsavoury skits’, which reportedly included the use of a blow-up doll and a shocking joke involving disgraced rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.
Some members of the team reportedly dressed as former NRL player Jarryd Hayne and Australian NBA star Josh Giddey during the event, with others dressing as the World Trade Center towers.
Greene – who dressed as Aussie breakdancer Raygun but was not accused of involvement in the offensive costumes or skits – was originally fined $20,000 for showing a lack of leadership, before the penalty was reduced to $5000.
‘There’s things we could have done better, myself and as a club,’ Greene said after the scandal broke.
‘We learned them throughout the process and I guess all we can do is make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
Greene (pictured left on a previous holiday in Fiji) was rescued by a man on a jet ski who told him he’d never seen anybody at the break come that close to dying
While Greene wouldn’t rule out taking part in future end of season celebrations, he vowed to ‘go with the flow’, before adding it was unlikely the Giants ‘would be doing much next year.’
Green also told Triple M he’s unhappy with the AFL’s other captains over their lack of support for a big 2025 schedule change that has seen the league dramatically increase the number of games played on Thursday night.
‘I’m disappointed because I’m the only one who argued for them to be [played] every Thursday at Captain’s Day.
‘Danger [Patrick Dangerfield] and Darcy Moore and those guys who get all those big games on Friday nights weren’t too keen.
‘It’s good to see they [the AFL] listened. They just didn’t put the Giants in there.’
