“The Final Quarter” - the Adam Goodes documentary - will challenge Australians to again question the way an AFL star left the game

Adam Goodes left the AFL field hounded by jeers - and has not returned to serve a game that needs his expertise. A documentary on his final three seasons will challenge many to answer why this is so.

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Very few people wanted to deal with the question of racism on the terraces in Australian sport when Adam Goodes was jeered out of the AFL at the end of 2015.

It is highly doubtful many Australians want to face up to the question as it is posed again by the “Adam Goodes documentary” - The Final Quarter.

Those who have seen the 74-minute film - that captures the final three years of the Brownlow Medallist’s AFL career from 2013-15 - before Friday’s public release at the Sydney Film Festival are drawing the same conclusion: This is shameful moment in Australian sport.

Those who have not continue to work the same themes. Such as, Goodes was jeered because he was a “dirty player”. So why were the other “dirty” players not howled down week after week?

There is also that line of Goodes being jeered while other indigenous players were not - so it could not have been a racial issue. But Goodes was the only AFL player standing up for his cultural heritage - and attacked when he lived it on the football field, including with that “war dance” after scoring a goal against Carlton at the SCG in the 2015 indigenous round.

So the debate starts again.

The documentary director Ian Darling says Goodes “invited” all to have a conversation on racism; Darling feels his film continues that discussion.

So far, these are the reviews from the private screenings in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth last week:

Mark Robinson, Herald Sun Melbourne: “It is haunting and shameful. It makes you wince in parts. It’s makes you sad and angry. And it hurts in places.

“Really, we aren’t the Lucky Country, we are a country with an undeniable undercurrent of racism.”

Jake Niall, The Age Melbourne: “The documentary is a powerful portrait of a three-year period, not only in the vexed public life of Goodes, but in the Australian media and society.

“The Final Quarter demonstrates, too, our difficulty in navigating race and Indigenous suffering, and how an outstanding footballer - simply by the act of highlighting a racist comment in a game against Collingwood - became a political football, unleashing booing that the AFL boss Gillon McLachlan belatedly acknowledged was ‘ugly’ in 2015.”

Mark Duffield, The West Australian Perth: “The Adam Goodes documentary ‘The Final Quarter’ is both powerful and saddening.

“It will provide us with a measure of what, if any, ground we have made with our own racial prejudices in the three- and-a-half years since Goodes retired. Hopefully some.

“(The saddest note from the film is how) some in the mainstream media were able to blatantly misrepresent Goodes’ words and intentions to paint him as a divisive figure.”

Garry Maddox, Sydney Morning Herald: “You’re going to hear a lot about Adam Goodes in the coming weeks.

“Goodes did not need to be interviewed again for ‘The Final Quarter’. In much of what he said at the time – as shown in the film – he was articulate about the impact of each slur and tried to widen the debate to the deep hurt felt by others.”

One of the saddest notes from the Adam Goodes’ story is how there is no post-playing contribution. He often is tagged as the former AFL indigenous player needed on the AFL Commission, but he does not step forward for Australian football’s most-powerful policy setting forum.

During the 2015 AFL season - as the jeers became louder - Goodes took “indefinite leave” from the playing field. He did return.

Since his retirement at the end of 2015, he has been definitive in his absence from Australian football. Many hope he does return to serve the game.

Reaction to “The Final Quarter” might determine the “when” - and the “if” - of Goodes’ return. Not in doubt is the debate that was never resolved in 2015 - did racism hound Goodes out of the game - will be back from Friday.

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