Sports & Fitness Adam Goodes

As I explained earlier unfortunately it really does not matter what audience intentions were. Rightly or wrongly Goodes interpret them based on his own previous experiences and he has shown encourage and go public and say that Hey guys, what you are doing hurts me. Should we respect his feelings and stop?

 

I went to the dockers game today. It was great to see two of the indigenous dockers players do a traditional dance after they scored goals. There was a lot of cheering from the crowd. Also great to see many afl teams and players supporting goodes this weekend.

We need to teach our kids respect and good sportsmanship. Not booing.

 

Absolutely, and stop blaming the victim.
I think great he had the guts to speak up and call out someone in the crowd that called him a monkey ? Power to him, who would do this, so proud of him

Let's move on and understand this is wrong, he is a great Australian, elite athlete, lets try to understand what we could never know, we do not walk in his shoes



MTR

 

One important thing that hasn't been mentioned, how good is it seeing the afl copping badpress instead of the Nrl

I do not follow afl and have no interest in the game but as the other million outsiders have shat on the game and situation, I'll add my 2 cents too.

The 13 year old thing, can be taken two ways but he did help her and provide positive encouragement
Oz day wasn't that bad seeing the full interview, The project on ch 10 did a good short clip clearing some of the issues up

But as a player he sounds a bit precious and a grub that milks it from time to time... boo on then I say! Why can't you boo someone stretching the rules or taking the cheap shots. There are Plenty of players out there that fans love to hate, mostly cause of the way they play and they're common grubs. Would you sit back and cheer on the shop keeper who knowingly charges the wrong price for an item or someone that takes advantage of anothers misfortune (far stretch but hey why not)

And one other thing that may get the WA'ians offside is that when I heard the game was played in WA I assumed guilty to racism. Unfortunately things are different over west, not all but a fair few are behind the times. A few people told uswhen we got to WA to keep the car locked as "they're brazen, they'll take anything". my initial thoughts, a whitey would never steal anything

Now that I've offended enough people I'll leave you with a funny story from yesterday... having a chat with "Steve the Asian" (how the LL referred to him, Steve ancestors probably arrived with the gold rush) and got talking about break ins, he said we didn't have to worry about "them" across the road as our daughter plays with their kids! Wtf!

 

I don't follow AFL, but after the wave of Adam Goodes stories I couldn't help but get drawn in. My opinion from what I have seen.

1) The 13 year old calling Goodes an ape, was not appropriate. Sending her off the field? Not sure about that. But then again 13 year olds can look much older, its not like Goodes sent a six year old off.
2) Calling everyone who was booing as racists by the media, is lazy journalism. As others have pointed out, sports fans cheer and jeer many different players, couches and referees for the actions they take. Being in such a large crowd, there is a huge component of herd-mentality where people join in just because others do it as well.
3) It is a snow-ball effect. Any original attention to the booing by Goodes or the media made the story blow-up. There was a lot of support for Goodes as a result, but there was just as much negative opinion of him as a result from people who didn't care before.

 

I've been listening to the various arguments on both sides about this issue for the last week since it occurred.

First of all; I want to point out that no player should get booed, and it is a sad indictment on our society that folks stoop to that level. No player should be booed at all for any reason, although "dirty" players should expect to cop a mouthful of abuse I suppose. Adam Goodes is not a dirty player, by the way.

Second; I am a huge fan of Adam Goodes; he is absolutely what his people need to lead them on to a more positive future; his success as a footballer; two Brownlow Medals, Premierships, Australian of the Year. Fabulous. I am proud of him.

I've played a lot of footy as a teenager, and been to hundreds of various levels of competition Aussie Rules games over the last 40 years or so; especially AFL as a Collingwood supporter (don't hold it against me; I'm one of the civilised ones with teeth).

One thing I have observed in my life that is common is abuse by fans towards players by both teams' supporters, and at all levels of competition, and for a wide variety of different reasons.

And every team's supporters do it.

In the case of Adam Goodes; there are many Aboriginal players in the competition, and have been for decades...Nikki Windmar, Michael Long, the Krakouer brothers and so on and so on, right through to the current crop of champions we all love to watch - including Adam..

Generally; these blokes are applauded for good play, and go about about their business playing footy. From my experience, the were rarely if ever booed...certainly no more than any otherl villian of the competition of the day.

A few weeks ago, during the Indigenous Round, Adam Goodes decided to react to the crowd with a spear-throwing dance after a goal he kicked, an action which was targeted specifically at the Carlton supporters. I saw that incident, and I thought it was inflammatory and aggressive, but hey; it's part of the game to gee-up the crowd. I think his selection of dance\"weapon" was wrong. It didn't bother me by the way, but thought it was uncalled for.

It is arguable whether he was deliberately trying to provoke their supporters or not, but the result - as is always the case when you target the other team's supporters - is you cop more flack back times 1000. As an experienced player he would know that. In my opinion he made a mistake with that stunt.

He could just as easily have gone to his own Team's cheer-squad and done the same dance, and he would have been applauded and cheered, and lauded the champ that he is.

I saw that incident, and thought it was a bad decision, because it looked to be aggressive and confrontational towards the Carlton supporters....and it was; they reacted immediately.

And then; he then did it again last week , in the same manner; towards the other Team's supporters, and got bused and booed vehemently. I am not saying they are right to do that, but he must have know what the result would be.

Conversely, I watched the Dockers game yesterday, and a few minutes into the game on of the Docker's younger stars kicked a goal - Michael Walters.

He proceeded to do a kind of "dancing Brolga" type dance - but not ant anyone in particular - just into the expanse of the ground itself.

The reaction was cheering and applause, and even the commentators remarked that he was celebrating his heritage and culture, and showing support for Adam Goodes.

He then kicked a second goal a few minutes later, and did the usual thing of High-Fiving his team mates and went about the game as per usual.

End of story...no booing, no abuse. Everyone in love.

No; in my view; Adam is being treated as he has been because he is choosing a pattern of divisiveness and aggression, and to incite the fans...and it always works.

Of course; immediately everyone is branded a racist, and this is a terrible situation where anyone can take a contradictory position about any bad behavior or words said, and immediately it is branded racism.

This does not help the reconciliation cause at all.

Everyone needs to follow the lead of that young player from Fremantle yesterday; celebrate their culture and put it on display.

I think Adam is needed by the Country in our Game, and it is the platform he can use to do wonderful things. He just needs to choose the Michael Walters attitude.

Direct the spear throwing dance at his own supporters after each goal; and they will cheer him. And/or; select a dance such as that of Michael Walters, and direct it at the whole world.

I really hope he returns to the Game, and plays great footy does the Aborigines proud as he has done for many years.

It is unfortunate that these idiots are whipping it up, but Adam is a big enough man to shake it off, ignore the idiots and let his boots do the talking - the idiots will soon shut up again.

 

I think maybe you have nailed it there Bayview.
A paying supporter however should always be allowed to voice his disapproval of an event and/or the performers within the event in a reasonable manner,including booing,that is democracy.
Walters got it right and Goodes got it wrong and should come out of hiding and apologise to those that he has offended with his aggressive and provocative behaviour.

 

Bayview

I'm a swans supporter and watch every game . Where you are wrong is stating that this started with the spear throwing incident .

It had been going on for over a year in almost every game that he played in .

The spear throwing was a reaction to the persistent booing and a result of his frustration at it continuing .

Cliff

 

Well said Bayview. Although not sure of PC on the word 'Aborigines'. Think indigenous is preferred these days but all in all well said.

 

They were called Aborigines for the first 40 odd years of my life - and everyone was happy with that.

Then, Indigenous suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

So, is Aborigine now illegal?

 

What I want to know is when did booing become acceptable behavior in this country? I am only 47 I was brought up to believe that booing was a terrible thing to do. It showed a lack of sportsmanship and was something you would be embarrassed to admit to doing. When did it become ok? I think it is poor form and very un-Australian to boo anyone.

 

Yeah, it's awful when people come along and want to change things all of a sudden that weren't broken, isn't it?

Like imagine if you'd been living here in peace for tens of thousands of years, and newcomers wanted to change everything.

 

I've edited my previous post. Way too subtle.

 

This would mean that it goes back to the incident with the girl who was evicted from the game, by the sounds of it.

I saw that too, but hadn't noticed unusual booing of him up until the Carlton game.

I want to see him pull on those boots, go out there, kick 10 bloody goals and do the Brolga dance every time....but not towards the opposition supporters...

Go Goodsey.