A RACE TO THE GOAL Adam Goodes’ Story in The Final Quarter and The Australian Dream
The final act of the sporting career of Adnyamathanha and Narungga Australian Football League (AFL) player Adam Goodes served as a focal point for a … well, the polite term would be ‘discussion’ about racism – not just on the footy oval, but in Australian society and culture as a whole. The details are a matter of public record. During a game in the 2013 Indigenous Round, Goodes had security eject a thirteen-year-old spectator who had called him an ‘ape’, a term that has long been used as a racial slur. Following the incident, the Sydney Swans player became the subject of increasing vitriol from both game-day crowds and public commentators, including The Footy Show co-presenter Sam Newman and conservative 2GB radio broadcaster Alan Jones. After enduring a campaign of abuse that included being loudly and repeatedly booed at seemingly every game he played during the 2015 season, Goodes announced his retirement from football in September of that year.
The broader discourse around what is now generally referred to as the ‘booing controversy’ was prolonged and often heated, with pundits on both sides of the political divide ruminating on the meaning of it all. Was it racist? Was it even about race? Who gets to
