Footy icon turned Channel Nine star Andrew Johns has left his co-hosts stunned with a bizarre and wild outburst about trans people and a sexual encounter during a massage.
Johns, 51, made the remarks on Wednesday’s edition of the Freddy and the Eighth show, with fellow Nine stars Brad Fittler and Danika Mason joking about the show getting cancelled as a result of what he said.
The panel – which featured Wests Tigers star Api Koroisau as their special guest – were discussing footage of Johns drinking beer at a game in 2001, the year he led Newcastle to their second premiership.
‘Can you imagine if that happened today?’ Mason asked, with Koroisau replying, ‘You can’t even have a beer when you’re not at the footy.’
Johns then went off on his wild tangent as he fondly remembered the old days of footy.
‘When men were men, and sometimes men were women. Oh, that’s these days,’ he said.
Footy Immortal turned Nine star Andrew Johns (right) left his co-host Brad Fittler (left) joking that their Freddy and the Eighth show was going to get cancelled after he went off on a wild tangent about trans people and sexual massages on Wednesday
Johns’ remarks left the rest of the panel in stitches (pictured left to right: Fittler, Johns, Wests Tigers star Api Koroisau and Nine host Danika Mason)
The former Newcastle Knights star’s outburst came as the panel were talking about having a beer at the footy back in the ‘old days’
The entire panel laughed before Johns added, ‘Hello to that lady in Samoa I got a massage off last year,’ while waving his hand.
‘Well, we lasted 201 episodes,’ Fittler joked.
‘It was great while it lasted,’ Mason said.
When Johns said ‘deep massage’, Mason asked him to explain ‘the difference between a deep one and a light one’.
‘Starts with happy and ends with ending,’ he replied, then added, ‘It starts with Api,’ in a reference to Koroisau.
By that point the entire panel were in fits of laughter, with Koroisau completely losing it.
‘That’ll all get cut out,’ Fittler said.
‘No, no, no – that’s staying in,’ Mason replied.
Johns also referred to how he helped his fellow Nine star James Bracey stop being a ‘geek’
When Fittler joked that Johns’ remarks would have to be cut from the show, Mason (pictured at the Logies) replied, ‘No, no, no – that’s staying in’
Earlier in the program, the panel were discussing who did and didn’t behave themselves at the Logies, which Mason attended.
She said Nine sports host James Bracey ‘was in good form’, after which Johns said Bracey used to be ‘a geek’ but has now changed after hanging around with former footy stars like himself and Fittler.
‘You’ve rubbed off on him. He’s been hanging around you too much,’ Mason said.
‘Since the Golden Slipper [horse race],’ Johns replied.
‘Yes, you got him good,’ Mason laughed.
Johns made headlines earlier this year when he refused to commentate for 20 minutes of an NRL match in a protest against the actions of the video ref team in the bunker.
When Wests star Fonua Pole was sin-binned for a high tackle, Johns put the microphone down and barely spoke for the rest of the match.
‘I was frustrated, it was doing my head in, I just wanted to throw the microphone,’ he later explained on Nine.
