Revealed: How Adam Goodes feels about building bridges with the AFL 10 years after racism tsunami turned him into footy’s biggest recluse
A decade after Adam Goodes performed his iconic Indigenous war dance, it’s been revealed how the Sydney Swans champion feels about reconnecting with the game that made him famous.
The code’s most decorated Indigenous player has distanced himself from the game since 2015, following the prolonged booing saga that lasted three seasons.
The two-time Brownlow Medallist has also knocked back offers to be inducted into the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame and AFL Hall of Fame.
With Sir Doug Nicholls round approaching, the AFL has made efforts to get Goodes back in the game – but without much luck.
‘No, he is not interested right now,’ Swans board member Michael O’Loughlin revealed to News Corp.
‘He’s fine. He’s living his best life. We miss him, we love him and hopefully at some point we will get to see him again.
Goodes, who has shunned the AFL since his retirement, is still not interested in reconnecting with the game
Goodes (pictured with his wife Natalie) has also refused offers to be inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2021 and NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2024
‘He loved the game and the game let him down and it has let a lot of people down.
‘He should have walked out a hero and that he didn’t is a real indictment on us.’
Goodes became a symbol for Indigenous rights after standing up to relentless crowd abuse in 2013.
He had been standing near the sidelines during the last two minutes of the match between Sydney and Collingwood when he heard someone in the crowd yell over the fence: ‘Goodes, you’re an ape.’
The culprit was a 13-year-old girl. She was escorted from the ground by security guards after the Swans star pointed her out.
Days later, then-Magpies boss Eddie McGuire suggested promoters of a King Kong musical in Melbourne ask the footy star to promote the show.
In 2015, he celebrated a goal against Carlton with an Indigenous-themed war cry that saw spectators target him heavily.
That year he refused to participate in a grand final motorcade for retired players, and has declined most invitations to AFL events ever since – even declining an invitation to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2021.
Goodes (pictured celebrating Sydney’s 2012 grand final win) was called an ‘ape’ by a young Collingwood fan in 2013 and was heavily booed in his last three seasons in the league
In 2015 Goodes celebrated a goal against Carlton with an Indigenous-themed war cry that saw spectators target him afterwards
Goodes has achieved a lot including winning two Brownlow Medals, two premierships, being named All-Australian four times, and is a member of the Indigenous Team of the Century
AFL chairman Richard Goyder acknowledged that the AFL should have done better by Goodes after he rejected the 2021 invitation.
‘The treatment of Adam in his final years at AFL level drove him from football,’ Goyder said at the time.
‘The AFL and our game did not do enough to stand with him at the time, and call it out.
‘The unreserved apology that the game provided him in 2019 was too late, but, on behalf of our commission and the AFL, I apologise unreservedly again for our failures during this period.
‘Failure to call out racism and not standing up for Adam let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and present.
‘We hope that there will be a time in the future when Adam will want to be connected to the game again.’
Goodes returned to the SCG in May 2022 for the Swans’ 10-year premiership reunion, doing a lap of the ground at halftime in the Swans’ clash with the Gold Coast.
