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Indigenous round marred by shocking racial slur

24th May, 2013
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24th May, 2013
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The opening game of the AFL indigenous round has left the nation embarrassed following a racial slur made towards the AFL’s most high profile indigenous player.

On a night where Sydney were underdogs, they were lifted by two of their most exciting players who both happen to be indigenous.

The performance of evergreen 33 year old Adam Goodes was best-on-ground while speedster Lewis Jetta burned his opponent with a fabulous goal on the run.

However, the night ended on the most sour of notes when Goodes was running along the boundary line in the dying stages of the game.

Immediately stopping and returning the boundary line, Goodes pointed to a female patron and called security over in regards to a racial slur directed at him.

The incident was caught on Channel 7’s cameras and it took only seconds for security staff to escort the patron out of the ground.

The act quickly gained international attention from various news outlets. Meanwhile, Twitter was bombarded with reactions condemning the act, leaving the Australian community dearly ashamed.

“Something clearly said to Adam Goodes, sitting on the couch speechless and really flat! #bloodydisappointing,” tweeted Jack Riewoldt.

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The win was Sydney’s first at the MCG against Collingwood in 13 years but a clearly distressed Goodes left the ground immediately and did not celebrate the win with his teammates on the field.

The patron who made the alleged comments has been revealed to have been a 14 year old female Collingwood supporter.

Immediately after the game, Collingwood President Eddie McGuire entered Sydney’s locker rooms to address the situation.

“I apologised to him on behalf of the Collingwood Football Club and football people in general. We have a zero tolerance at the Collingwood Football Club on this,” he said.

“We are not going to have this rubbish. Some young girl has gone and said something stupid. Bad luck. We are not making excuses people made excuses for too long about this.”

“There is no generation gap for idiots.”

It was a powerful message from McGuire to address the incident on national television immediately after the match.

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A great ambassador for the game and legend of Australian Football as a two time Brownlow medallist, Goodes celebrated the 400th goal of his career earlier in the night. When questioned by media after the game, he was clearly uncomfortable discussing the comments and chose not to pursue the matter himself, opting to leave it to the AFL.

Racism within Australia has been a consistent issue over the past months with multiple acts of public vilification going viral. Several incidents filmed in public by bystanders have made international headlines abroad, leaving Australia bruised over the primitive acts.

Last year, Australian Football’s first Sundanese-born footballer, Majak Daw, was subjected to a similar incident in a VFL game. Although the altercation was not caught on camera, Daw immediately had the patron ejected.

The patron was forced to attend a program against racial vilification if he wished to ever attend a game of football again.

A fortnight ago, two men were ejected from Eithad Stadium when Daw was once again the target of racial slurs. On that occasion, a nearby fan reported the actions to security who immediately escorted the two men out.

The AFL indigenous round celebrates past and current indigenous players for their contribution to the game.

It is unfortunate that the image of a finger-pointing Goodes will now be ingrained into Australian history for the actions of a supporter which can only be described as disgraceful.

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