Adam Goodes furore a watershed moment for race relations in Australia

Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans during the Round 17 AFL match between the West Coast Eagles and Sydney at the Domain Stadium in Perth, Sunday, July 26, 2015. (AAP Image/Tony McDonough) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Adam Goodes will not play in this weekend’s game against the Adelaide Crows at the SCG.

The 35-year-old Sydney Swans veteran has been in good form. The ravages of age and of contact and collision have not forced a rest due to what is loosely called player management.

Adam Goodes is standing out because he is tired of being the focus of abuse. In the past few days Goodes has been called a perpetual victim and a sook.

Goodes came to Sydney after the Swans took him as their third pick (47th overall) in the 1997 draft. He debuted 12 weeks after his 19th birthday, won the Rising Star in 1999, was awarded Brownlow medals for fairest and best in the competition as judged by the umpires in 2003 and 2006 and as of Sunday has played 365 games (ninth on the all-time games played list) for 212 wins, 454 goals, two premierships, three Bob Skilton medals, four All-Australian jumpers and was named centre half back in the Indigenous Team of the Century.

Of his 365 games, 191 were played consecutively. That’s around nine gruelling seasons without missing a game through injury or suspension. Back when he was playing in the ruck, I saw Goodes suffer a posterior cruciate ligament tear. It’s known as the ruckman’s injury, where the ligament on the posterior of the knee strains to the point of rupture due to a blow to the inside or anterior of the knee, usually from the force of an opposition ruckman’s size 14 boot or sometimes a knee.

I thought then that Goodes’ run of consecutive games would come to an end. An injury like that has a rest and recovery period of 12 to 14 weeks. He played the next week.

He is one of the most decorated players to have played the game. But the true test of a champion is the big occasion. Goodes’ performance in the 2012 Grand Final was stunning. How has this been forgotten? It was less than three years ago.

The Swans’ spiritual leader went down in the second quarter, grabbing his knee. It was that same troublesome posterior cruciate ligament. Most players would have left the field and donned the red vest. Adam Goodes stayed out there. Three goal assists later and a goal off his own boot that put the Swans five points in front with five minutes to play and the Swans were premiers.

Never mind those who refer to Goodes as a victim or a sook couldn’t kick over a jam jar. These are not the actions of a person who easily lapses into victimhood. His ability to play injured, often with serious injuries, are hardly revealing of a man who is weak in mind or body.

Another argument put forward by the commentariat is that Adam Goodes is the only indigenous player who is booed. Let’s examine that.

We don’t have to go back too far to see spectators thrown out of grounds for racial abuse. It happened last Sunday at Domain Stadium. It’s been directed at Goodes on a number of occasions. It’s also been directed at his teammates, Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin and Lewis Jetta, West Coast’s Nic Natanui (Australian-born of Fijian parents) and Majak Daw, a Somalian-born Australian citizen playing with North Melbourne in separate incidents in the AFL and VFL competitions.

And those are just the recent examples where ground security or police have been involved.

In 2011, Port Adelaide midfielder Danyle Pearce spoke of his time at SANFL club Sturt where he and other indigenous footballers were subject to racist taunts by spectators.

“It’s not dead and buried,” Pearce said. “It’s tenfold (better) to what it used to be ... but it happened again this year, which caught me by surprise.”

His then Port Adelaide teammate, Daniel Motlop, described the racial vilification he encountered while playing for SANFL club North Adelaide against West Adelaide as “the worst I’ve ever copped”.

So we can run a line through the hollow assertion that Adam Goodes is the only indigenous player attracting derision and racial abuse from football crowds.

Another argument in the mad scramble to rationalise crowd behaviour is it’s just booing — a natural expression of a crowd unhappy with a particular personality. It is, the argument goes, the stock and trade of theatrical melodrama, albeit played out on a football stadium. People pay their money and should be able to do as they please.

But it isn’t just booing. It’s a low hum of derision interspersed with abuse, some of it containing vile, racist epithets, that builds throughout a game.

One spectator, who chose not to be named (funnily enough), was ejected from Domain Stadium on Sunday for yelling, “Go back to the zoo.” He expressed astonishment that he was removed from the stands and — shock, horror — spoken to by police. He claimed his remark was a piece of lively banter, directed at no one in particular. The response from ground security and police was, in the spectator’s estimation, a sure sign of “political correctness gone mad”.

I would strongly urge that fellow to jump on a plane and fly to Los Angeles. From there he can take a short cab ride to the suburb of Watts and wander along Compton Avenue yelling at no one in particular to “go back to the zoo” and see how he gets on. It may prove to be an enlightening cross-cultural experience for all concerned or the last thing he ever does. If he suffers the wrath of passers-by I guarantee it will not be over an argument over political correctness.

Indigenous players make up 16 per cent of AFL playing lists, while indigenous Australians account for 5 per cent of the nation’s population. It is as much their game as it is yours and mine, arguably more so. Though the origins of Australian Rules football are contended, one could point to the original Marngrook as the birthplace of the game before European contact. Suffice to say, the brilliance, athleticism and ball skills of players like Shaun Burgoyne, Eddie Betts, Cyril Rioli, Lewis Jetta, Buddy Franklin, Chris Yarran, Adam Goodes and so many others keeps the turnstiles ticking over.

But there are some sectors of AFL crowds — a mirror of Australian society if ever there was one — who respect indigenous people only when they are passive, smiling and grateful. Troublemakers will be called out.

Twenty years ago, the AFL had their battles with on-field racism. Due to the unwavering conviction of indigenous players such as Michael Long, it does not happen anymore.

Nicky Winmar lifts his jumper and points to the colour of his skin. Picture: John Feder

The image of Nicky Winmar in 1993, raising his St Kilda jumper and pointing to his chest at Collingwood’s then home ground, Victoria Park, remains a landmark moment in the game. It was a one-man protest against the racial vilification hurled across the outer to indigenous footballers.

Like Winmar, Adam Goodes has become the focus of derision and abuse because he will not cop the abuse from the crowds.

The final argument in the long list of desperate rationalisations is that Goodes has behaved poorly and the booing and heckling is spontaneous, driven by a collective moral assessment that has found him to be of poor character.

This argument defies basic human comprehension. There have been AFL players who have knocked around with gangsters and outlaw bikers, drug dealers and murderers who have not had to bear the hostility Goodes has experienced.

When he’s not kicking a footy around, Adam Goodes works with indigenous communities, especially with indigenous youth. He doesn’t punt his money up against a wall or get involved in stinks in nightclubs. He helps people.

If there is a collective moral judgment going on here, it is skewed to the point of abject lunacy.

Whether people like it or not, this is an issue of race and racism and the furore has created a watershed moment in race relations in this country. It is the next step that is crucial and it cannot be taken by the corporate suits in the AFL or the clubs, coaches or the players themselves. It can only be taken by the spectators who need to decide what sort of game they want to follow and more generally what sort of society they want to live in.

The great shame is we may never see the dual Brownlow medallist on the football field again. I hope it isn’t the case but if it is, if Adam Goodes is effectively booed and heckled into retirement, it will be a stain on the game and the nation that can never be removed.