Racism is something Adam Goodes has grown up with.
“It happened in junior ranks, it happened in high school, it happened when you went to the shop to get some milk,” he said in a 2012 interview replayed in The Final Quarter, a documentary on Goodes’ final years in AFL.
But it was one word yelled at him from the sideline of the 2013 Indigenous round, and Goodes’ impassioned reaction that saw the AFL superstar face unrelenting racism for the next three seasons of his career, forcing him into early retirement.
Here’s the trailer for The Final Quarter, which is available to watch on Stan. Post continues below.
“I am pretty gutted to be honest. The win sort of means nothing… to come to the boundary line and hear a 13-year-old girl call me an ape. It was shattering. Racism had a face last night and it was a 13-year-old girl.
“But it’s not her fault. She’s still so innocent, I don’t put any blame on her, unfortunately it’s what she hears. It’s the environment she’s grown up in,” Goodes told a post-match interview the next day.
Top Comments
I watched this with my children aged 12,11 and 8 after my MIL had told them she found it boring. She also told my 12 year-old that Adam was a good player but he said bad things and caused trouble. I was horrified and needed them to understand it. Fortunately, this time I was able to stand up in a timely manner. My fear is that my children will be exposed to untruths and prejudice by family members whlist I am blissfully unaware. Hopefully, they will always talk to me. This documentary was amazing and brutal. I am sometimes ashamed and embarrassed to be a middle class person with white privilege because of what others in my position say and do.
I found the booing horrendous, especially having been to a game where he was booed (by fans from my side). It was so loud and terrible and just ruined the game, I wanted to sink into the floor it was awful. This is a man who has never been a drug cheat, never acted with violence towards another human, a superstar of the game, two time brownlow medallist- being being booed relentlessly at every game every time he got near the ball.....years after the racism incident. When you see what shenanigans other footballers get up to and how quickly they get forgiven it really does make you question the values of your country.
Exactly!!