Booing rekindles AFL racism furor

“These people claiming it’s Adam’s fault, he needs to change his behaviours…it’s akin to blaming a victim of rape for the way they dress, walk, talk”.

And nearly every one of them is accompanied by a chorus of boos from Cats fans after they believed he had delivered a cheap shot on Geelong captain and resident tagger Cameron Ling. “But when it comes to talking about hard subjects, they don’t actually want to know”, he explained, before touching on the most recent incidents of booing. It’s a pity Goodes wasn’t up to playing this weekend, he would have been pretty chuffed with what he saw.

Is he a former Eagle?

Lyon has been appalled by the treatment dished out to Goodes, who is a champion of the game and a role model in the community.

“Franklin probably shouldn’t have played but he said from very early in the week he’ll be right”, Longmire said. Let’s celebrate this diversity and keep our great game free of all prejudice for all to enjoy.

“It was a flippant, off-the-cuff remark and the players would not have heard it for all the booing and banter coming from the crowd”, he said.

But it has lifted in intensity this season. So far, he has remained silent – but for this week the majority of fans have not.

THE sad thing about this Adam Goodes affair is the small-minded attitudes of some, ruining something handsome for so many.

The reason commentators do not want to have this conversation is because it is about more than football.

And while a 13th finals series beckons, he doesn’t deserve to go out like this – booed into retirement.

Legitimate barracking for one’s team is a tradition that has been alive as long as the game itself but, when such behaviour coincides with cultural displays and Goodes’ efforts to stop racism, it is clear that a line has been crossed to racial abuse. To others, it is no more than a copycat action; they boo him because others do and are encouraged by evidence that it puts him, and his teammates, off their game.

A replica of Goodes’ number 37 guernsey is also on display at the V8 Supercars event in Queensland. “People are booing out of discomfort”.

“How does a four-time All Australian consider hanging up the boots not on his own terms?”

“I think it is clearly racist and combines with tall poppy syndrome”. Footy is made up of people from diverse cultural backgrounds.

“We must also see national leadership from all sides of politics in responding to racism and religious bigotry”. If that becomes the case the shame will not be his…it will be ours.

“If non-Indigenous players join in, people love that – our mob love it, that there’s a mob of non-Indigenous players joining in with our dancers, we think that’s just great”, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said.

“This is clearly an issue that he’s concerned about and is sick of, and needed a couple of days (off)”.

West Coast supporters boo Essendon skipper Jobe Watson during a game 2013 at the height of the supplements saga. The fanatic fan-base of the AFL is all for anti-racism, but it will not tolerate egotism represented by the face of a man who has shaped the game and assisted in the moulding of how it is played today.