The Roar
The Roar

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Does the Adam Goodes drama expose a racist underbelly in Australia?

27th May, 2015
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27th May, 2015
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Somehow, Adam Goodes has become one of the most polarising figures in the AFL. The 2014 Australian of the Year is revered for his work in, and for, the Indigenous community.

Yet, it’s these same accolades that seem to have garnered him an enemy following.

This disdain for Goodes manifested – again – when the Swans played Hawthorn on Saturday night at the MCG.

With each handball, kick, mark and goal, the crowd jeered, taunted and booed.

But booing is just a part of the pantomime of sport, they say. Lance Franklin was booed when he touched the ball.

Besides, it’s the crowd’s prerogative to get involved in the game. Players, past and present, elicit strange sounds from the crowd: think Paul Roos and Luke Breust.

It’s all part of the fun, they say.

But are the jeers levelled at other players really comparable to what Adam Goodes is subjected to?

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Franklin was booed by the Hawthorn faithful on the weekend, but for good reason. As we all know, he used to play for the Hawks and so the booing is somewhat ironic and justified.

Brendon Goddard is subjected to the same taunts from the crowd when he plays against his former club, St Kilda. Ryan Griffen may receive the same treatment from the Bulldogs’ supporters when Greater Western Sydney play the team he used to captain this coming weekend.

But Adam Goodes has played each and every one of his 357 games in the red and white. As a one-team player, Goodes is perplexed as to why he receives such mistreatment from Melbourne crowds – and the response from the public is just as bewildered.

Some say it’s tall poppy syndrome. Let’s pick on the bloke who was given that Australian of the Year Award. Some say it’s because he’s a champion of the game, and champions get booed. And some say it’s because he stages for free kicks.

But what other one-club champion gets booed? And is Goodes really the only player who stages?

Joel Selwood is the master of playing for frees. There is no player who knows how to manipulate the rules of head-high contact better. But Selwood is never booed. What’s more, Goodes has averaged 0.5 free kicks per game this season, whereas Selwood has averaged 3.8.

While it’s difficult to assess whether these statistics show a direct correlation between staging for free kicks and receiving free kicks, they do highlight the perception surrounding Goodes as the game’s biggest stager are somewhat exaggerated.

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So how do we explain this constant idiotic jeering from crowds? Perhaps we’re simply too ashamed to admit the reason may be more sinister.

This weekend the AFL community celebrates the plethora of Indigenous talent that has shaped, and continues to shape, the game.

Goodes, as a leader in the football, Indigenous and Australian community, will once again be thrust into the spotlight.

Two years ago, Goodes’ stature within Australia changed as he singled out a young, ignorant spectator who racially vilified him during the Swans’ match against Collingwood.

It was an ugly incident, one that disturbed the fabric of our society, especially given the racial slur occurred on a weekend designed to raise the profile of Indigenous footballers.

Australia’s racist underbelly was once again awoken – and awoken under the veil of innocence by a girl not old enough to vote.

We were united in horror when the incident happened and united in praise for Goodes in the immediate fall-out from the game.

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Yet, somehow, Goodes is now branded as enemy number one.

Goodes did not ask to be racially vilified and he did not ask to be named Australian of the Year in 2014. But after the incident, Goodes found himself in a unique situation where his own personal experience of racial vilification served as a microcosm for issues of racism on a much larger scale.

Cometh the moment, cometh the man? Apparently not.

The boos from the crowd on Saturday night highlight Goodes’ role in speaking out against racism may have only just begun.

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