DO NOT BOO GOODES
For way too long now, too many people have been trying to justify why it’s okay to boo Adam Goodes.
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Some say it’s because he tries to play for free kicks: some take offence at his goal celebration; others say it’s their right to boo whoever they want because they paid their money at the turnstiles.
All of the above excuses are just that – pathetic excuses, and if you boo Adam Goodes you are a pathetic racist.
There will no doubt be many people out there who will take offence at these comments, and that’s fine. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. Unfortunately, though, this issue has now got to the stage where we need as many people as possible to speak out.
The AFL, until now, has remained relatively silent on this issue, hoping it would simply fade away, maybe worried that bringing greater notoriety to these boors might do more harm than good. I have, until now, supported that stance for the above reasons.
However, now it is clear that this form of barracking is racially motivated, as much as we would love to be able to point to the fact that Adam Goodes switched clubs for more money, or that he knocked out a star player, or that he assaulted someone on the field, off the field, in a pub somewhere, as these actions give supporters an actual reason for booing a player.
The fact is he has not done any of these things. He is a one club player. He’s been toasted at two Brownlows. He’s won two premierships, he’s been a leader at a club that is revered in AFL circles for its culture – and he’s black.
The fact that he is incredibly proud of his ancestry, his Aboriginality, has led him to try to better the lives of his fellow people.
For these pursuits he was awarded Australian of the Year. Maybe some who boo have a dose of tall poppy syndrome.
I also hope readers don’t think that 13 years out of football and in the Parliament has made me more politically correct and has somehow eroded the competitive forces that were in play for my 20 odd years as a player and coach. That isn’t the case. What is plain and simple is that this unfair treatment of one of the game’s greatest players must stop.
I’m proud that the leaders of my old club, Geelong, have appealed to their supporters for the Swans’ next away game not to follow the “bottom feeders” from other clubs, and therefore I will be bitterly disappointed if this behaviour does surface in Round 19 at Simmonds Stadium.
In what could very well be his last year of footy, we, the footballing public should be doing everything in our power to send Adam off in the way he is entitled.
Not because he’s an Australian of the Year, and certainly not because he is black.
He deserves the send-off of a champion because that’s what he is.
Damian Drum, Assistant Coach Sydney Swans 1994 - 1998
DON’T BUILD ON COURTS
As a long time, member of the Golden City Netball Association, I am amazed to see that the proposed new stadium is to be built on the existing netball complex. The netball complex in Marong Road is one of the best in country Victoria, and I know the facility is used by many organisations, including Netball Victoria, who have and are again this year running the State Titles at the venue.
I don’t understand the need to build a stadium on the netball courts when there is plenty of free land surrounding the existing Stadium. It seems to me that the cost involved to rebuild the netball area is a complete waste. The Netball office, courts, fences, lighting and shelters that the Association have spent plenty of netball dollars on over the years are just going to be knocked down.
It also appears that netball are going to have anything but what they already have in the rebuild. Why would you spend all this money, if they are not gaining anything.