Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes has been forced to step away from official duties in order to adequately deal with the furore surrounding the continued booing and abuse he has been copping at the hands of AFL crowds.
“This is clearly an issue that he’s concerned about and he’s sick of and he needed a couple of days and that’s what he’s taken.”
“He won’t be here at training today and that’s the most important thing that we address and support Adam.”“He’s tried as hard as he can possibly to go about his business and try to move on and try to address it the way we thought was appropriate at the time but he’s had enough of it.”“This bloke’s an absolute superstar of the game. He’s done almost all there is to do in football and doesn’t deserve to be booed every week.”“We’ve tried to deal with it to this point but it hasn’t worked.”
Both Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley and Melbourne coach Paul Roos have come out in support of Goodes, and stated that they believe the continual booing is at least in part racially motivated – whether the people participating in it have the self-awareness to realise it or not. Meanwhile the Swans executive is steadfast in its belief as to the cause, with Swans chairman Andrew Pridham dismissing all other “flog”-based explanations as nonsense.
“They’ve tried to come up with a whole host of reasons. I know it’s my view and the view of the club, it’s 100 per cent racist. That’s what’s driving it.”
The booing and jeering Goodes is receiving is wholly unique in the sense that it is constant, sustained, and exists irrelevant of on-field performance. And the fact that we’ve got to a point where players are addressing media specifically pleading with their own fans to not boo or jeer Goodes – behaviour that basically amounts to “not being a complete jerk” – is utterly ridiculous.
