Adam Goodes Has Rejected The “Honour” Of Being Inducted Into The AFL’s Hall Of Fame
As he should.
Aussie rules legend Adam Goodes has rejected the offer of being inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.
As per Hall of Fame requirements, players are only eligible for the title after being retired for at least five years. And with 2021 marking five years since Adam Goodes retired from the sport, the former Sydney Swans star was unanimously nominated by the committee.
But the AFL legend has rejected the offer after he retired from the sport due to the lack of respect shown to him while on the field — including being booed out of the game in 2015.
According to The Herald Sun, Goodes told the Hall of Fame committee that he wouldn’t accept the honour due to the racial abuse he faced towards the end of his AFL run.
Good on Adam Goodes knocking back the AFL's Hall of Fame invite. He should do the KB and wait until everyone there who publicly did SFA while his disgraceful treatment was unfolding is gone.
— ralph horowitz (@rtralphy) June 7, 2021
As documented in The Final Quarter, Goodes was subject to vitriol by AFL fans who booed the two-time premiership and dual Brownlow medal winner for the last 18 months of his 372-game footy career.
In one instance, a teenage girl even called Goodes an ape during a 2013 game against Collingwood, but he was the one called out for finding issue with the racist insult.
“He probably should apologise because maybe he should have picked his target a little bit better,” the mother of the 13-year-old said at the time. “If he hadn’t have carried on like a pork chop it wouldn’t have mattered. I don’t think he should retire, he should man up and just take it if he wants to play the game.”
After the incident then-Collingwood president Eddie McGuire apologised for the encounter, but later suggested that Adam Goodes should be used to promote King Kong the musical without any punishment from the AFL.
It is very sad that one of the great First Nations players of our time, Adam Goodes, is not willing to accept induction into the hall of fame. I hope those who tried to justify their treatment of him as, in some way, legitimate are pleased with themselves.
— Lex Lasry (@Lasry08) June 7, 2021
While the AFL eventually apologised for not acting sooner to correct the treatment Adam Goodes faced towards the end of his career, the apology was too little too late.
“By the time Adam retired, he had been subject to a level of crowd booing and behaviour that none of our players should ever face,” league chief executive Gillon McLachlan said in the 2015 AFL annual report.
“As a game, we should have acted sooner and I am sorry we acted too slowly.”
In 2019, the AFL and all 18 clubs then issued a joint apology to Goodes, stating that the organisation’s inaction towards this clear racism essentially “let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players”.
“Adam, who represents so much that is good and unique about our game, was subject to treatment that drove him from football. The game did not do enough to stand with him, and call it out,” the new apology read.
“Failure to call out racism and not standing up for one of our own let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and present.”
So really, Adam Goodes deciding to reject the offer of being inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame should come at no surprise. After all, who would want to be celebrated by an organisation that really did nothing to protect him against a horrific 18 months of attacks?
always remember the afl could have done something or anything at all to protect Adam Goodes and they didn’t he owes them or us nothing
— andie (@anndeejam) June 8, 2021
Lead image by Jack Steel (@jacksteel_au)