Port Adelaide players, coaches and staff stop to watch the Adam Goodes documentary - The Final Quarter - after training on Tuesday
Port Adelaide players coaches and staff stopped work to watch the Adam Goodes documentary ahead of its public release on Thursday night and the response was emotional and overwhelming but also uniting. Reece Homfray reports from Alberton.
At 8-8 and with its season threatening to slip away you might think that Port Adelaide Football Club had more important things to do than down tools for two hours to watch the Adam Goodes documentary on Tuesday.
But the simple fact is they don’t.
“It’s very important for us and it’s very important for Australia,” chief executive Keith Thomas told the entire playing list, coaches and staff who were seated in red, yellow and black beanbags at Alberton.
“This is a big moment.”
Thomas then encouraged them to ask themselves two questions while watching The Final Quarter which will be shown on Channel 10 on Thursday night.
“How are you feeling about what you are seeing and what else could we have done?” he said.
Afterwards when the final three years of Goodes’ career had been condensed into 70 mostly uncomfortable and confronting minutes, the room stayed silent and Thomas handed the microphone to the club’s Aboriginal programs manager Paul Vandenbergh.
Vandenbergh took a deep breath and his voice held up for all of five seconds before failing him.
“That is the second time I’ve seen it and ....”
That was all Vandenbergh, a proud Aboriginal man, could get out and he gave the microphone back and stepped away.
The first time he saw it was with the Indigenous All Stars camp in February when he sat next to Goodes’ brother Brett who had tears streaming down his cheeks and Eddie Betts and Shaun Burgoyne were also emotional.
When he regained his composure a few minutes later, Vandenbergh spoke of the shame he and others in the AFL industry felt at realising they allowed Goodes to suffer in silence and didn’t speak up to support him.
That must change, he said, and it has, with the competition standing in solidarity to support players like its own Paddy Ryder and Adelaide’s Eddie Betts when they were racially vilified this season.
“One of the things as a footy club is we don’t want to step in on other clubs’ business,” Thomas told the room.
“If Adelaide has an issue, or Sydney, or Carlton, we tend to stay out of it.
“But in these situations, it’s bigger than that, and what watching this film has shown us is maybe we should (speak up).”
The Final Quarter opens with Goodes appearing on Open Mike where he says he believes there is enough support for Aboriginal players in the AFL and racial abuse has almost been stamped out.
“But almost isn’t good enough,” he says.
That year Goodes wins his second AFL premiership to go with his two Brownlow Medals, cementing himself as one of the greatest to ever play the game.
The following year he points out a 13-year-old girl in the crowd at the MCG for calling him an “ape” during indigenous round, and walks down the race and into the rooms on his own with 45 seconds to go.
The next day he says the girl is the face of racism in Australia but it’s not her fault, it’s what sadly she hears in the environment she’s grown up in.
The film then shows Collingwood president Eddie McGuire joking that Goodes should be used to promote ‘King Kong’, him being named 2014 Australian of the Year and his campaign to ensure indigenous Australians are recognised in the constitution.
Then comes the booing. In Round 18 against Hawthorn, Round 22 against the Western Bulldogs, Round 23 against Richmond and the 2014 grand final against Hawthorn - every time he went near the ball.
It continued in 2015 against Hawthorn in Round 8 then in Round 9 Goodes did his war cry towards the Carlton fans at the SCG.
He was booed in Round 11 against North Melbourne, Round 13 against Richmond, Round 16 against Hawthorn and Round 17 against West Coast.
After endless media debate over whether the booing was racially motivated or whether he should even feel affected by it, football finally started to show its support.
Juniors across the country had No.37 written on their arms, Bulldogs captain Robert Murphy wore No.37 in a game, Richmond wore its indigenous guernsey, Melbourne players an Aboriginal wristband and there was a standing ovation at the seventh minute of the third quarter of a game in Sydney.
Yet still the booing continued. In Round 22 against St Kilda, the qualifying final against Fremantle and in the semi-final against North Melbourne that would be Goodes’ final game.
He declined an invitation to participate in the grand final parade for retiring players amid fears he would be booed even while sitting in the back of a car waving to the crowd.
“That he could be run out of the game is almost unbelievable,” Thomas said.
Sadly it’s not. And it happened just four years ago and the Power’s co-captain Tom Jonas said it had shown how narrow minded even he was to the situation at the time.
Goodes was approached about the documentary in 2015 but said he wasn’t ready for it, but by 2017 agreed it was an important part of the national conversation.
Now a copy of The Final Quarter is being donated to every school and sporting club in Australia, accompanied by a teaching resource to help educate students and players.
Vandenbergh closed the session by telling the room that he had stayed silent to racism while growing up at school and that a “stay in your lane” mentality has challenged him his entire professional career.
Like Thomas, he doesn’t want anyone to suffer racism in silence anymore and hopes the Goodes documentary is a line in the sand moment for society to make sure of it.
reece.homfray@news.com.au