AFL fans are beginning to realise the persistent booing of Adam Goodes is “dehumanising”, says the Collingwood president and commentator, Eddie McGuire, despite another incident at the weekend.
Booing of the dual Brownlow medallist surfaced again on Sunday during the Sydney Swans’ 97-point win over St Kilda in Melbourne.
Small pockets of the Etihad stadium crowd could be heard jeering when the Sydney player gained his first possession early in the game and again after each of his three goals.
The continued targeting of the Indigenous champion is a thorny problem for football administrators, who want the booing to stop but are reluctant to keep drawing attention to the behaviour of a minority of fans.
Four weeks ago Goodes took a break from the game after the booing became a national issue. All 18 club captains appealed to supporters to stop the apparent harassment of the 2014 Australian of the year.
Small-scale booing could be heard on his return in a match against Geelong, but fans have generally refrained and McGuire believes the message about the treatment of Goodes is finally getting through.
“I get the feeling that the football fans – and I even find it at non-Swans games – are starting to be a bit tentative about booing which is a good thing. They’re realising ‘Now hang on, there’s a bit more to this,’ ” he said.
“Yes, we want to have the boos for the blokes lining up for goal and jeering and all rest of it … but the bullying or dehumanising of what was going on with Adam, I think, has started to dissipate. I hope so. We’ll find out in the next few weeks. But let’s hope that’s the way it goes.”
McGuire said he had not seen Sunday’s game but heard the jeering had not been a major issue.
The Swans chairman, Andrew Pridham, also played down the booing, tweeting that St Kilda fans had been “terrific”.
Richmond’s Dustin Martin was fined $2000 last week after making a two-fingered gesture to the crowd, sparking complaints of a double standard after Goodes escaped censure for a “war dance” at a Carlton crowd in May.
But the AFL’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, said last week there was no comparison.
“I think everyone understands what the two-finger salute is actually supposed to mean and what it’s about,” he told 3AW radio.
“The indigenous war dance, whatever people want to call it, it’s come out of an under-16-year-old Boomerangs group of kids and it was done in Indigenous round and it’s supposed to be one of celebration.
“I don’t think you can draw the links or the parallels.”
Fans took to Twitter during Sunday’s game to decry and downplay the booing.
@adambspencer You're not hearing things. First thing the kid in front of me did when we sat down was boo Goodsie.
— Craig Radford (@Craig_Radford) August 30, 2015
Disappointed @stkildafc didn't make a statement about fans booing @adamroy37. Talk a big game about inclusiveness, here was your chance
— Daniel Roitman (@danielroitman89) August 30, 2015
