As a junior, Newman played underage suburban football for Mornington in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League, and was not part of the TAC Cup or any other AFL elite talent pathways until age 19, when he played one season as an overage player with the Dandenong Stingrays.

Outside football, Newman had left school in Year 11 and was earning a living in landscaping and other trades.

[4] Newman spent his first two seasons playing entirely for the reserves in the NEAFL, including selection in the NEAFL Team of the Year in 2016 and winning the Andrew Ireland Medal as best on ground in the grand final, to earn a contract extension and elevation to the senior list.[5].

He missed almost the entire pandemic-interrupted 2020 season with injury, suffering an elbow injury in round 1, then rupturing his right patella tendon three months later;[9] despite this, he won the Best Clubman award for the season, an award he later also won in 2022 and 2023.

[10][11][12] Newman ruptured his left patella tendon in the 2025 pre-season, and is expected to miss the entire season.