AFL Daily: Hawthorn fans respond to Adam Goodes gesture, rolling footy news from Thursday 20 June, 2019

Hawthorn has asked its fans to show respect to Adam Goodes after some threatened to cancel their membership over a special club tribute to the indigenous champion. RECAP TODAY'S FOOTY NEWS

Hawthorn has asked its fans to show respect to Adam Goodes after some threatened to cancel their membership in response to the club's decision to pay a special tribute to the Sydney champion on Friday night.

Every Hawthorn player will wear the number 37 on the back of their warm-up guernseys before their clash against the Swans at the SCG as a show of support to the indigenous champion.

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The move follows the release of a documentary earlier this month “The Final Quarter” which detailed the discrimination Goodes faced in his career.

Hawks’ star Shaun Burgoyne said the playing group had decided on the idea to wear his number in a tribute to the dual Brownlow Medallist.

“With Adam’s documentary coming out, it was a good chance to reflect on where we are as an industry and where we’ve come from,” Burgoyne said.

“On reflection, clubs and players have come out and admitted that at the time, our response wasn’t good enough.

“Obviously we can’t turn back time, but as we’re playing Sydney in Sydney this Friday night, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to show our support for Adam publicly.

“We want to show that we’re all beside him, united in stamping out racism.”

Teammate Jarman Impey backed the move: “We’re trying to spread the message and it’s very powerful,” Impey said. “Everyone as a nation should see it and learn about it to see what he had to go through about the racism he had to deal with.”

Adam Goodes

A Facebook post on the official Hawthorn page announcing the decision attracted more than 1500 comments, with the Hawks asking fans to "show respect" when joining the debate.

While some applauded the move, many more voiced their opposition, labelling the gesture "ridiculous", "a joke" and "pathetic".

Gary Humm declared: "HFC used to be OUR club … has now SOLD its SOUL & just dances to the tune of PC patsies … WHAT A DISGRACE "

Dale Reynolds added: "disgraceful ... How do I cancel my membership!?"

Rod Scott wrote: "I wonder if the Hawthorn Football Club are reading these comments as it's quite obvious that there is very little support for wearing this number 37."

Adam Phillips was one of the minority of fans who supported the move: "It’s ok, if we lose “supporters” over this so be it, it’s called taking a moral stance … Congrats to the boys for the gesture they are showing and perhaps our supporters and our president can learn a thing or two."

Originally published as AFL Daily: Hawthorn fans respond to Adam Goodes gesture, rolling footy news from Thursday 20 June, 2019

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