Booing of Adam Goodes by fans of Melbourne clubs

[Muffler]

Muffler, I take your comments on board and agree with you, to a degree. One question, in response to my post, you make the comment - "it's a good way to disguise your racist thinking". I assume you mean - their racist thinking.

Thats exactly what I meant. Apologies if you took it the other way. Your..., as in the one who is doing the booing.

Ah the English language, aisle get it write won day.

[magic.merkin]

There is a famous line from the 1967 movie 'Cool Hand Luke':

"What we've got here is failure to communicate"

Whatever the reason why those Hawthorn supporters choice to boo Adam Goodes, the message that comes from that form of communication to many people is that it is a racist slur. It may not impact on you, you may perceive its related to Goodes staging a some minor free kick in Round 21 Season 2002 or whatever. But the MESSAGE this form of communication sends to me and many other people is that it is highly offensive and related to politics and race. There was no such booing prior to 2013 when the Collingwood incident occurred.

Personally I hate booing generally, least of all to champions of the game, and in this case a great Australian. That said, I distinguish it from the booing of Buddy, who left the club and who has never been associated with politics and racial issues in the community.

If the message is being sent to the community that the might be a racial aspect to it, it puts those who do it, and broadly the Hawthorn Football club in a very bad light.

Totally incorrect, he has been booed at near every game i have seen him play in Melbourne. This has been from large sections of the crowd multiple times a year for 10+ years.

[penga]

It's definitely racism.

So Ballantyne gets booed because he is white? I'm glad we've cleared that up.

I boo every opposition player who doesn't play within the spirit of the game.. Goodesy at just about every contest throws his arms in the air and makes a pleading look at the umpire. He did it again on Saturday night which endeared him even more to the Hawthorn faithful.

[Conor_Dillon]

He might have been booed on the odd occasion in the past but nowhere near the magnitude he has since that incident in 2013. I find it hard to believe how people fail to see the underlying racial currents involved.

[magic.merkin]

it's like people have different opinions?!

I don't think anyone has said it's not partly racial. I think some of us are arguing it's not entirely racial.

[top40]

Totally incorrect, he has been booed at near every game i have seen him play in Melbourne. This has been from large sections of the crowd multiple times a year for 10+ years.

We have already had people on this thread comment on the lacking of booing that arose for the Demons game earlier this month.

The reality is that Adam Goodes' national wide status, (that goes well beyond AFL), as well as the political and racial issues recently surrounding him, make it appear to many in the community including me as being possibly racist. These issues don't surround Buddy Franklin, Hayden Ballantyne, Barry Hall or whoever. They did not surround the English cricketer Stuart Broad a few summers ago when he got booed. It was clearly barter and not perceived by many to be connected with any serious issues such as racism.

Many people are offended by the booing of Adam Goodes for the reasons above.

Can't those who chose to boo have the empathy to understand that. Or are they just too arrogant and lacking empathy to appreciate the offence they are causing some people. What would it harm them to simply show a bit of respect. Because if they are not racist, (and they probably are not), they have nevertheless insensitive and lousy lousy communicators where there is no apparent barter going on, only discord and in some cases anger.

[magic.merkin]

We have already had people on this thread comment on the lacking of booing that arose for the Demons game earlier this month.

The reality is that Adam Goodes' national wide status, (that goes well beyond AFL), as well as the political and racial issues recently surrounding him, make it appear to many in the community including me as being possibly racist. These issues don't surround Buddy Franklin, Hayden Ballantyne, Barry Hall or whoever. They did not surround the English cricketer Stuart Broad a few summers ago when he got booed. It was clearly barter and not perceived by many to be connected with any serious issues such as racism.

Many people are offended by the booing of Adam Goodes for the reasons above.

Can't those who chose to boo have the empathy to understand that. Or are they just too arrogant and lacking empathy to appreciate the offence they are causing some people. What would it harm them to simply show a bit of respect. Because if they are not racist, (and they probably are not), they have nevertheless insensitive and lousy lousy communicators where there is no apparent barter going on, only discord and in some cases anger.

For starters we outnumbered the Dee's supporters almost and they have always been a quiet bunch in general and the last 10 years well.... They got Jesse Hogan!

In regards to your last paragraph, they are hawthorn supporters, what do you expect? I was on an aisle and had several look for a fight as they exited. It was going on everywhere. Egomaniacs. They just know old mate Gibbo was Karate Kicked a year or so back and Goodes is now Public enemy #1. Sprinkle some casual racism, back to back flags and booze and we have last saturday nights experience.

Also hot tip, they don't think last year's GF was the past, but 2012 was, so don't come back with that. Also saturday nights loss was the umps fault, and def not hodges (for being absent for a bigger dog act than Goodes has ever done) or skill errors on their own behalf etc. Definitely not influenced by our players either.

[Mel_C]

I'll bet Garry Lyon and Hutchy didn't back her up though. Eddie's mates don't like Goodesy.

Both Garry and Hutchy backed Caroline. On the Sunday Footy show Hutchy was very vocal on his disgust at the booing.

As others have mentioned the booing has become worse since the Collingwood game incident. There were a number that said that Goodes was soft for being offended by the word and that he needed to harden up. Then came being awarded AOTY and his comments on racism. Unfortunately people don't think there is a racism issue in Australia and don't like being told otherwise.

I can only imagine the comments being added to the recent articles that have been written.

[magic.merkin]

Both Garry and Hutchy backed Caroline. On the Sunday Footy show Hutchy was very vocal on his disgust at the booing.

As others have mentioned the booing has become worse since the Collingwood game incident. There were a number that said that Goodes was soft for being offended by the word and that he needed to harden up. Then came being awarded AOTY and his comments on racism. Unfortunately people don't think there is a racism issue in Australia and don't like being told otherwise.

I can only imagine the comments being added to the recent articles that have been written.

i implore you don't look at social media comments. Turn back!

[Nico]

Totally incorrect, he has been booed at near every game i have seen him play in Melbourne. This has been from large sections of the crowd multiple times a year for 10+ years.

The game against North the week after he got a reprimand for a slide in or was it a swipe at a WCE player. Whatever, it was the start of all the booing. They were relentless for the whole game, way more than last Saturday. There is an element in Melbourne who think he is over rated and a protected player, and all the subsequent incidents have just confirmed this to these people. I don't see him staging too often, but like Hall, he has endured holding pushing etc with little support from umpires, hence maybe some frustration and tweaking in contests. But as someone else says it is the racist card that has made the booing continue.
When you hear Hawthorn supporters making monkey sounds and downright derogatory racist comments directed at him at the footy you can only come to one conclusion. Sure, there has been some minor booing from other clubs in Melbourne, but in the main it is Hawthorn supporters who continue with gusto.

Another angle is; the more they boo him the more they think they are putting him and the team off their game. Sorry is doesn't work.

[jono2707]

The standard awful comments have appeared on Facebook this arvo when Goodes was quoted as being disappointed in the booing. Whilst not outwardly racist, many stem from the fact that he "bullied a 13 year old girl then got Australian of the year for it". This seems to be a common perception among some of our more cerebrally-challenged AFL fans and has no doubt been fed to them by some in the Melbourne media. That, and him being a "sook", "princess" and "whinger" amongst other things definitely points to the "uppity black" syndrome mentioned here previously that seems to be an issue for some (predominantly anglo-saxon males) fans....

[Meg]

I have had the 'discussion' re Adam's AOTY award with others on previous occasions. Anyone can nominate any person they think is deserving - but of those who complain about Adam's award, I have yet to hear from one who actually put the time and effort into nominating someone whom they think was more deserving. And then these same people complain that Adam used his award to speak about racism. So did they complain when Patrick McGorry spoke about mental health issues? And now Rosie Batty is speaking up about domestic violence issues? That's WHY these people became the AOTY.

For anyone who is interested, the link below takes you to a video put together to publicise the AOTY nomination process and features the man who nominated Adam for the 2014 award and Adam himself. Both come across very impressively in my view.

Broken Yellow

[CureTheSane]

I'm not a big fan of the AOTY award for many reasons, the main one being that we as a society single out one person who has supposedly done something of significantly greater value.
Add to that it's to a degree a press driven award.
I liken it to a King of Moomba.

But those thoughts are a separate issue to Adam Goodes and the booing.
I honestly don't think the wider population give much of a crap about the AOTY, particularly a certain demographic who frequent the footy.
Many people I know dislike that sports people are held in any regard, let alone receiving these kinds of awards.

[Jeynez]

I honestly don't think the wider population give much of a crap about the AOTY, particularly a certain demographic who frequent the footy.
Many people I know dislike that sports people are held in any regard, let alone receiving these kinds of awards.

A lot of Hawthorn supporters were annoyed that Shane Crawford didn't win AOTY instead of Goodes, that's what they're claiming now anyway.
It bewilders me how they claim they're not booing for racist reasons, but in the same breath argue that Goodes' AOTY award award was illegitimate, that he bullied a little girl and shouldn't be offended by the word 'ape'.

[MomentByMoment]

No matter what a person identifies as the 'reason', the force behind it is discrimination.

It's the same pathology that made Alan Jones feel that it was ok to discuss dropping Julia Guillard into the sea in a sack.

Racism. Homophobia. Mysogeny. Etc. These ugly realities are always masked by 'reasons'.