- GWS Giants captain had near-death experience
- He blames himself for endangering his life
Toby Greene has opened up about how a “stupid” and “arrogant” split-second decision nearly caused him to drown while surfing in Bali during an end-of-season vacation.
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 on a break in Bali.
“We were staying on this beach and I noticed there were little rocks you could walk on,” he said. triple-m.
“I noticed that all the surfers were surfing on the other side of this point and I thought, ‘I wonder why no one had paddled out from my side, I’ll do it because it will save me time.’
“So I paddled out, I misread the break and how big (the waves) were, and that the reef was a foot deep, and those eight-foot waves hit me and threw my board onto the rocks, so that disappeared.” .
‘The (lifeguard on) the jet ski was yelling for me to swim sideways because I can’t get to you, he was trying to save me.
“I found myself under some waves and said to myself, ‘Don’t panic, because you’ll die.’
“The jet ski came and picked me up and said, ‘Dude, that’s the closest I’ve ever seen anyone perishing here.’
AFL star Toby Greene (pictured with partner Georgia Stirton) nearly died when he went surfing on the first day of his end-of-season holiday in Bali.
The GWS Giants skipper (pictured with Stirton and his daughter Isla) confessed he almost died because he made an arrogant decision about how to paddle into the waves.
Greene told hosts Billy Brownless and Anthony Lehmann that he was “arrogant” to row the way he did.
What I did was just stupid. “It was the first day (of the vacation) and I was excited.”
Football 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 behavior of several stars in advertising their “couples in trouble”-themed party outfits.
The event took place in a private room in a pub and saw the team’s players perform ‘disgusting skits’, which allegedly included the use of an inflatable doll and a shocking prank 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, and others dressed as the World Trade Center towers.
Greene, who dressed as Australian breakdancer Raygun but was not charged with participating in the offensive costumes or skits, was initially fined $20,000 for showing a lack of leadership, before the penalty was reduced to $5,000.
“There are things we could have done better, myself and as a club,” Greene said after the scandal broke.
“We learned them along the way and I guess all we can do is make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Greene (pictured left during a previous holiday in Fiji) was rescued by a man on a jet ski who told him he had never seen anyone on the landing so close to death.
While Greene wouldn’t rule out participating in future end-of-season celebrations, he promised to “go with the flow,” before adding that it was unlikely the Giants would “do much next year.”
Green also told Triple M he is unhappy with the other AFL captains for their lack of support for a major 2025 calendar change that has seen the league dramatically increase the number of games played on Thursday nights.
‘I’m disappointed because I’m the only one who advocated for them to be played every Thursday on Captain’s Day.
‘Danger (Patrick Dangerfield) and Darcy Moore and those guys who have all those big games on Friday nights weren’t very interested.
‘It’s good to see they (the AFL) listened. They just didn’t put the Giants there.