The booing of Goodes: Poor taste or theatre?

, the solution to two promelbs highlighted in your piece,(ie geographical isolation precluding broad availability of texts, and the economies of scale of small print runs) is POD or Print on Dermand. Simple as that. I still maintain the future looks pretty damn bright for poetry thanks to the digital revolution, if you know where to look.

Go on Natalie, I dare you..........Compare Dr Bruce Robinson from W.A to Adam Goodes and tell me why Saint Adam is so deserving of the award?

Blah, blah, blah, Natalie. I suggest you move on..........the Swans lost. Adam Goodes is merely a football player..........Some fools might deify him, but in the scheme of things he has done nothing but play football. Token gestures about racial conciliation come second to his job. He is a lame AOTY. Check out the list of nominees at the link below and have a good hard think. The man is what is known in the USA as an uncle tom and Abbott, the great rah rah rugby fan, knows bugger all about Australian rules but fell over himself to get his mug on national television just to slime up to AFL fans with a token donation. Adam Goodes copped this without any question because, at the end of the day, he is too foolish to see the irony and the patronising meanness of this hollow gesture. As stated above, the selection panel are hand picked morons who are there to make sure their master gets the best possible outcome from what has become a politicised award. Both sides do it and it is shameful Another of Captain Tony's picks for "team Australia"........Now have a read and a good hard think...... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-24/eight-candidates-vie-for-australian-of-the-year/5217382

Well done!

I saw the presentation. I am a little bit more intelligent that some, and chose to actually envelope myself in the announcement and actually look into it in more depth. Rather than stand back like you and throw around accusations. It's not that hard to go and read a few things and educate yourself. Using the excuse you have offered "oh that's what he said so it must be right" is pretty poor. The Australian of the Year is selected by a panel, not by one person. Don't connect your dislike for the leader of the country to the dislike for choices of AOTY. Would any other choice for AOTY also come with the same distaste because Tony Abbott is still a decision maker? Every comment you make opens up another piece of the jigsaw puzzle behind your posts. Adam is a football player first, and a community person second. The amount of time he commits to his role of AOTY is secondary to his on field commitments, and given the length of the swans season, and the amount of effort he would have to put in to stay in the game for longer at his age, an ordinary person would not be so hard on him. Given when he was awarded the honour, he was deep into his pre season, and that season has now just ended, I am sure his focus will turn to his honour and his dedication to the GO Foundation. It is easy to sit back and cast your aim at him and say things like, "he has done nothing", "he hasn't come out and made comments about this and that". If Adam believes that the withdrawal of funding is going to have adverse affects on the indigenous community then I am sure he would comment. However he is a football player, not a politician. It is probably not necessarily his place to comment. He may also feel like others, that the cuts will have minimal impact. Don't let your anger and dislike for Tony Abbott, get in the way of some simple thoughts around why Adam was awarded AOTY. He is a great of our game, he has done excellent things for the Dareton community through the GO Foundation, and him and Michael will continue to do so. Now take a deep breathe..........exhale............and move on.

I have had a couple of good outcomes with that at the gabba, that we were able to resolve without having the person thrown out - I think a lot of it has to do with how you approach the situation. Not racist behaviour - I've never been at the ground & in the vicinity of someone who has unloaded something like that, but unsociable or unpleasant stuff. The couple of times it's worked out, it's been because the person has reacted well to my initial gambit of "hey come on mate, you don't have to say that sort of stuff", and it's clear I'm not spoiling for an argument - I wound up chatting to a guy, wound up buying us both a beer and we chatted for a bit, and he was pretty good the rest of the game. I don't know if he showed up to the next game also pissed and was swearing loudly around children, but I know I made a small difference to a couple of appreciative fans in the immediate area that night. You do what you can, that's my point.

Watch the presentation, Natalie! Who cares where the money went, Tony Abbott had no idea when he stated it was for a football academy, the fans read it that way, and perception is all in today's society. Aside from that, the rest of my comments sound reasonable to me. Millions cut from indigenous programs and not a word of dissent from Saint Adam. Selecting a current AFL footballer from one individual club was always going to be divisive and our fool prime minister could not even think that through. Gotta wonder about some of his other decisions and the bedfellows he keeps.........

Practical solution Paul D? 1 Point it out for what it is - racism. 2 Politely ask the person to stop - everybody is entitled to cheer or to boo, but no apes, dogs, black c--ts etc! 3 Either they will realise they are wrong and stop (good result - 5% likely) or they will spit in your face and continue (bad result - 95% likely) 4 Ask their friends to control them or you will call security. 50% likely to succeed. 5 Call security. Again 50% likely to succeed. 6 If all else fails move yourself and your family away to safety, because by this stage the drunken racist morons only want to fight to show what big penises they have. 7 Explain to your kids that racism should always be confronted because it is wrong. Congratulate people like Cam, Peter Fitzsimons, Erin and Clementine for having the guts to raise these issues, knowing that other racist trolls will abuse them forever in the anonymous comments section. 8 Enjoy your day and remember that it is only sport, win or lose.

Well said Paul D. When I first read that Erin Whatsit's piece - with its unsubstantiated "People were heard saying ...", Others said ..." and "Friends reckoned ..." standard of evidence - I thought it was written for comic relief after an exhausting day enjoying the grand final football. I wasn't so sure afterwards whether the young graduate actually noticed the play, or attended the MCG for that purpose.

The $500k was not for a "football academy", it was for the GO Foundation. It is this sort of ignorance that is the reason why people boo. The $500k will be spent on scholarships to Indigenous students so they can attend secondary and tertiary education. Mindless, ignorant rubbish. Don't angle in on Goodes only, if you are going to attack the Go Foundation. Another indigenous AFL great is also the co founder, Michael O'Loughlin. Don't contain your post to one person....

Yeah, not up to the News Ltd standard.

I thought they were booing the game, because it was so one sided and not that interesting to watch.

You are truly a first class spud

Your stupidity knows no bounds

You haven't stated any commentary Kev. You have stated companies.

Actually you are wrong. ape is offensive when directed towards indigenous people because it was a commonly perpetuated line of scientific enquiry during the 1900's and early 20th centuries that indigenous people were sub-human and closer to apes than white people. It's called scientific racism or eugenics, additionally its the theory that the Nazis used and people of colour were commonly referred to as apes during these times. Racism has a history and its history is relevant when considering how racism is perceived today. People who are not the victims of racism do not define what is or isn't racist for those that are.

I see everyone's favourite bandannaed journo, Peter Fitzsimon has breathlessly linked to this piece in his weekly scaremonger article. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/boo-to-you-grow-up-if-you-think-what-we-saw-in-the-afl-grand-final-is-acceptable-20141001-10ophg.html If you read his piece, 99,999 people must have gone to the MCG for the express purpose of booing Adam Goodes, apart from poor Erin Riley who was mortified by ignorant people saying ignorant words. But that didn't stop her, as always transpires with these self-serving pieces, of branding everyone at the game an appalling racist and saying that she wouldn't be back. More's the pity. Clementine Ford got a mention too! Everyone's favourite frightbat couldn't resist a young woman being mocked by online trolls, a disease for which there is no cure, and no cause. 2000 words later, she finished with this pearler... "It’s time for the AFL to stop passing the ball to someone else, and start doing something." Quite what the AFL is expected to do about people that don't work for it or have any connection to the AFL apart from maybe watching games occasionally, anonymously trolling an Age employee on the Age website & Twitter was not detailed. But nonetheless, the assertion that the AFL must do something seemed a logical endpoint for her. And finally, Fitz said it was all totally unacceptable, puffed himself up with righteous indignation, and will now presumably forget the issue entirely until football season starts again next year. What's that? Next week's piece on Abbott passing spy laws? What footy? Who's Goodes again? What a mindless circular journalist session this was. Cam, Erin, Clem and now FItz, all frothing mad about the same thing and none of them have proposed the slightest practical solution to the problem - just feelgood puffery. Let me know how it all works out for you.

Kev don't try and insult me to get a point across.

Yeah, but with Goodes the amount of racist crap that gets blurted out by all those gutless "fans" of opposing teams is just ridiculous... it's a very poor look and you don't hear that sort of racist stuff at League or Union games these days - possibly because those sports have more coloured players than the AFL, but all the same...

It's pretty pathetic isn't it? In fact it's down right embarrassing if you ask me... I don't particularly care for AFL, but those Hawks fans just have zero class.