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Beyond equality: The place of Aboriginal culture in the Australian game of football
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Judd, Barry and Butcher, Tim (2016). Beyond equality: The place of Aboriginal culture in the Australian game of football. Australian Aboriginal Studies(1) pp. 68–84.
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Barry Judd School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Victoria, Australia
Tim Butcher Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia
Abstract: This paper provides an overview of Aboriginal interventions in the sport of Australian (Rules) Football in the period since the formation of the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990. Recalling several pivotal events that have defined and redefined the relationship between Aboriginal people and the Australian game of football, this paper finds that the struggle to end on-field racial vilification in the 1990s attracted widespread support from the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal public because these actions were consistent with the political principle of equal ity. The key actions of Nicky Winmar and Michael Long gained general appeal because they demanded that Aboriginal people be treated as though they were Anglo-Australians. In this regard, the 1990s fight against on-field racism in the AFL was a continuation of the Aboriginal struggle for rights associated with Australian citizenship. As the 1967 Commonwealth referenda on Aborigines demonstrated, most Anglo-Australians understood and supported the political principle of equal ity even though the promise of citizenship in substantive improvements to social and economic outcomes almost 50 years later remains largely unfulfilled. Nevertheless, in the recently concluded 2015 AFL season, Adam Goodes, the most highly decorated Aboriginal man to play the sport at the highest level, was effectively booed into retirement. Goodes became a controversial and largely disliked figure in the sport when he used the public honour of being 2014 Australian of the Year to highlight the disadvantage and historical wrongs that continue to adversely impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their commu nities. This paper argues that Goodes effectively sought to shift the paradigm of Aboriginal struggle beyond the sympathetic notions of racism and equal treatment to issues of historical fact that imply First Nations rights associated with cultural practice. Goodes’ career initiates a new discussion about the place that Aboriginal cultures, traditions and understandings might have in the sport today. His deci sion to perform an Aboriginal war dance demonstrates that the new paradigm we propose is primarily about the political principle of difference, not equality. Adam Goodes’ actions on and off the field have reflected more perfectly than any imported consistently argued for the right of Aboriginal code Australian values and ideals. According to peoples to remain culturally different and the right Deakin, the game had an important role to play for these differences to be recognised and accom- in both building and strengthening the nation. modated, if not embraced, by the Australian game By the end of the twentieth century the sport for of football. The cultural frontiers Goodes pressed many Australians had indeed become a touch- in the elite Australian Football League (AFL) stone of the Australian nation, saying much about competition reflect a growing reality in lower- national cultural values and national identity. level football competitions, where Aboriginal The salient narratives of the game that emerged peoples are increasingly demanding they play during this period inextricably linked the concept the game according to what we describe as an of Australian nation to the racial construct of Aboriginal football ethic, which embodies and whiteness and the cultural construct of an Anglo- celebrates distinctive Aboriginal cultural values Australian culture explicitly British in origin. and practices. The national values and identity evoked therefore In this paper we argue that the ethico-politi- came to celebrate only the archetypes of an ideal- cal responses of Nicky Winmar and Michael Long ised Anglo-Australia. In other words, the founda- to racial vilification in the formative years of the tional narratives and mythologies that frame the AFL inform the recent moves by Adam Goodes to Australian game of football functioned to exclude assert an Aboriginal football ethic. We show that Aboriginal people and to define them as exist- Anglo-Australian notions of equality, although a ing both outside the game and outside the nation key construct in the Australian public’s acknowl- despite their presence in both. edgment of Aboriginal players’ participation in During the past two decades the expansion the sport, severely restrict that participation. of the AFL into a national competition has been The case of systematic public booing of Goodes accompanied by official endeavours to broaden underlines the continued inability of the Anglo- the popular appeal of the sport by attracting play- Australian public to understand the ethico- ers and spectators from non-Anglo-Australian political demand of Aboriginal people for the backgrounds. To achieve this, the AFL developed recognition of cultural difference. and implemented strategic initiatives to engage with both multicultural and Aboriginal Australia. Background and context In seeking to engage with Aboriginal Australia, Since the formation of the AFL in 1990, Australian the AFL brand closely aligned itself with the (Rules) Football has increasingly pressed its claim politics of Aboriginal reconciliation, becoming to be the national game. Now played in every a national advocate for the process. In support- Australian state and territory, the recent expan- ing this process the AFL espoused the belief that sion of the AFL has positioned the Australian the Australian game of football could function as game of football as the most popular and lucrative an effective social forum in which reconciliation sport in Australia today. While widespread popu- between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples larity and ubiquitous media coverage, combined might be achieved and maintained through the with a geographic range that spans the continent, practice of playing and spectating football. Over- strengthen the national claim of the sport, such representation of Aboriginal participation as claims are intensified by its status as Australia’s players in the AFL is often cited as substantive only Indigenous popular sport. evidence of this success. Since the early twentieth century, advocates Although prevailing narratives continue to of Australian Football have promoted its benefits be discursively underpinned by exclusive racial according to the political agenda of Australian notions of whiteness — and their cultural coun- nation building and the search for a uniquely terpart, Britishness — in practice the sport has Australian national identity. In 1908 then Prime increasingly come to reflect the racial and cultural Minister Alfred Deakin (cited in Cashman et al. diversity that is characteristic of contemporary 2001:111–13) argued that as a purely Australian Australian society. The AFL has yet to resolve the invention, the Australian game of football inherent tensions that exist between the prevailing narratives of Australian Football, which locate its To restate our argument in somewhat different national credentials in the historic role the sport and perhaps more political terms, whereas previ- played as a marker of Anglo-Australian exclu- ous bounded and highly targeted struggles to end sivity and uniqueness, and the contemporary racism sought to assert the right of Aboriginal claims of Aboriginal peoples whose skilful excel- peoples to participate in football as though they lence in the sport has made the game an inherent were Anglo-Australians according to principles part of their contemporary cultures and identities of civil equality, contemporary struggles seek to throughout significant regions of the continent. assert the right of Aboriginal people to be recog- nised as culturally distinct groups within the Purpose Australian game according to the principles of In this paper we find that the tension that political difference. exists between the nationalist mythology of Recent Aboriginal interventions within the Australian Football and the contemporary elite national competition of the AFL have demon- beliefs of Aboriginal peoples — who play, spec- strated the shift in the way Aboriginal people tate and support the game that belongs to them understand Australian Football. To demonstrate — remains unresolved. We believe these tensions this we draw on our personal observations of lie at the heart of much of the conflict that exists the ‘booing saga’ that enveloped the final play- between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal ing years of recently retired Sydney Swans player Anglo-Australians in the context of Australian Adam Goodes. Following this story through both the mainstream sporting media and on social Football. In making these assertions we argue that media sites dedicated to Australian Football, it Aboriginal struggles in the Australian game have became clear that the football public did not come now moved beyond the contained and clear-cut to cast Goodes as a villain of the game simply battles against on-field racism that were fought because of his longstanding and very public stance in the 1990s to a much deeper, complex, unde- against racial vilification in sports. Rather, the fined and perhaps ongoing series of controversies mass booing of Goodes that reached fever pitch in that concern the cultural meaning of the sport. the 2015 season was justified as socially accept- In other words, we believe that recent controver- able crowd behaviour by both the Australian sies involving Aboriginal players in the AFL are Football public and many ‘respected’ commen- not about the issue of racism as such, but concern tators of the game because Goodes had dared to much broader questions about the position insert Aboriginal cultural meanings, including Aboriginal people occupy in the Australian game Aboriginal understandings of history, into the of football. Such questions are fundamentally national game. Many non-Aboriginal Australians about who owns the game and the ways in which who believed that football should reflect their the game can and should be used as a marker of values, identities and political agendas were not racial and cultural identity and by whom. happy with Goodes’ assertion that wherever he Invariably, questions about ownership and played football, he played on Aboriginal land; he the use of Australian Football eventually lead to was on the Country of a particular Aboriginal questions about who owns the country on which people. Goodes’ decision to respond to crowd the game is played. Aboriginal people who play booing by performing an Aboriginal war dance Australian Football believe they do so on Country during the opening match of the 2015 Indigenous and in recent times some have given public voice to Round in Sydney defines his attempts to infuse this assertion (Butcher and Judd 2015). Extending Australian Football with meaning and values far beyond the struggle of Aboriginal people to drawn from Aboriginal culture and understand- oppose racism in Australian Football, this new ing of history. paradigm has shifted debate to the extent to which The so-called ‘Goodes saga’ and the contro- the Australian game of football can fruitfully be versial reactions that characterised this episode exploited by Aboriginal peoples to transmit and are indicative of what might be called the ‘culture replicate uniquely Aboriginal cultural values and wars’ within Australian Football. These culture their own national identities. wars have emerged as Aboriginal people, for the first time in the history of the sport, assert their severely curtailed as a result of the on-field (in right to infuse the game with what we term an addition to the inescapable off-field) racism they Aboriginal ethic of Australian Football. Such an experienced. In the premier competition during ethic, we propose, declares the right of Aboriginal the period 1896–1989 the racial vilification of peoples to play the Australian game of football Aboriginal peoples became a socially acceptable in ways that draw explicit inspiration from their tactic used to put Aboriginal players ‘off their own stories and cultural traditions, that perpetu- game’. Racism became entrenched in the culture ate and strengthen distinctively Aboriginal iden- of the Australian Football played at the highest tities, and, most importantly, that maintain and level. Judd has argued elsewhere that the sanc- reinforce connections to Country, while invigor- tioned racial vilification of Aboriginal men in the ating and advancing the game. VFL reflected the values and ideals of an Anglo- Before detailing Goodes’ intervention and the Australia that the Australian game of football resulting controversy originating in the racial and sought to reinforce in the realm of sport (Judd cultural fears of non-Aboriginal Australians, it 2008, 2015). Lacking a critical mass of players to is essential to explore the historical period that challenge this situation; Aboriginal men remained immediately preceded contemporary attempts outsiders within football, a situation that mirrored to infuse an Aboriginal ethic into the Australian the politics of Australian citizenship for much of game of football. In doing so we retrace in some the same period (Chesterman and Galligan 1997; detail the foundational efforts of key Aboriginal Davidson 1997; Rowse 1998). players to create a space in Australian Football This situation changed during the 1990s when that was free from on-field racist attack. the AFL replaced the VFL. The transition from a state-based to a national league witnessed an The battle for equality: outlawing racism in influx of new Aboriginal players who quickly the AFL became a noticeable group within the competi- In 1990 the AFL was established, replacing the tion. For the first time there existed a critical mass Victorian Football League (VFL) as the premier of Aboriginal players at the elite level of Australian Australian Football competition. During 1896– Football. In this respect the AFL differed signifi- 1989 only a small number of Aboriginal men cantly in appearance from the VFL competition it played in the VFL. Some of these men chose to had succeeded. Despite these changes, the cultural play their VFL careers without reference to, or values and ideals that underpinned Australian promotion of, their racial and cultural identi- Football and the old VFL remained unchanged. ties as Aboriginal men — such figures include Racism directed at Aboriginal men in the sport Joe Johnson, Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer and Barry remained a defining characteristic of the game. Cable (Judd 2008). For others, whose Aboriginal In 1993, the International Year of the identity was an inescapable fact of their bodies, World’s Indigenous People, the longstanding racism became a normalised part of their partici- place of racism in Australian Football became pation in football. When a young Doug Nicholls a controversial talking point. In a match played (later to be Sir Douglas and Governor of South between St Kilda and Collingwood football Australia) turned up to train with VFL club clubs at Collingwood’s notoriously parochial Carlton in the late 1920s, his potential team- home ground, Victoria Park, on 17 April 1993, mates refused to share the change rooms with St Kilda’s star Aboriginal player Neil ‘Nicky’ him. His Aboriginality, they claimed, made his Winmar decided to take a stand against racism in body dirty and made it smell bad (Tatz 1995). In Australian Football. In doing so Winmar created the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s Syd Jackson, Robert history, providing a platform from which other Muir, and Jim and Phil Krakouer had to contend Aboriginal players would launch new fights in with constant racial vilification directed at them their struggle against racism in the sport. That from opposition players and spectators through- day St Kilda ended a 17-year losing streak at the out their careers (Gorman 2011; Judd 2008; Tatz ground. Winmar and his Aboriginal teammate 1995). Robert Muir and Jim Krakouer, in particu- Gilbert McAdam were awarded ‘best on ground’. lar, often responded physically. Their careers were The combined brilliance of their play that day had been the difference between the two teams. The Commission stated that its members ‘abhorred Collingwood supporters were aware of this and racism’ but at the same time did not believe any subjected both men to racial taunts. When the changes in the rules or processes were neces- match ended with St Kilda 22 points in front, the sary. Nor did Winmar’s own employer, St Kilda abuse of Winmar and McAdam from the grand- Football Club, want to be ‘distracted’ (Klugman stands continued. Winmar responded by lifting his and Osmond 2013:153). St Kilda guernsey and, facing the hostile crowd, The responses of the AFL and St Kilda were pointed to his chest to declare, ‘I’m black and I’m consistent with the dominant cultural attitudes of proud’. The image of Winmar making this highly Australian Football and the national values and symbolic gesture was captured by Wayne Ludbey ideals originating in the early twentieth century and John Feder and published in the Melbourne that continued to be reinforced and perpetuated newspapers the Sunday Age and Sunday Herald in the game. Collingwood captain Tony Shaw Sun. Those photographs produced intense debate (cited Klugman and Osmond 2013:94) summed and forced the AFL, the Australian Football public up those values and ideals when he admitted: and the nation to confront the issue of racism that targeted Aboriginal peoples in a way rarely seen It’s a business out there…I’d make a racist comment every week if I thought it would help before. For Aboriginal Australia the image of a win the game. If I think I can say something to proud and defiant Winmar was as important as upset someone, then I’ll say it. I couldn’t give a the Black Power salute of Tommie Smith and John stuff about their race, religion or creed. If they Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics had react, you know you’ve got them. been for African-American political struggle in the United States of America in the late 1960s. Many agreed with the sentiment of Shaw’s As Gilbert McAdam would later recall, ‘it rein- comments. Former Essendon champion and forced that our people around Australia are proud columnist in The Age Simon Madden agreed that of who we are and how far we’ve come’ (Klugman racist sledging of Aboriginal players was simply and Osmond 2013:151). For those who supported part of the game — ‘The question for the foot- the twin concepts of a multicultural Australia and baller is not how to stop [the abuse] but how do national reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples, you handle it?’ (Klugman and Osmond 2013:160). the symbolism of the Winmar image was not lost. Such sentiments found ready support from At the level of federal politics, Australian members of the public who believed that the racial Labor Party Senator Nick Bolkus, then Minister vilification of Aborigines was part of the fun and for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, embraced entertainment that watching Australian Football and celebrated Winmar’s actions in taking a stand on a Saturday afternoon provided spectators: against racism. Australia, noted Bolkus, was an Shouting out abuse was just part of footy, ‘unsettled nation’ struggling with widespread supporters of all clubs did it, and the play- racism that needed to be eliminated before a ‘fully ers should be able to cope with it…As report- Australian identity’ could be developed (Klugman ers from both The Age and the Herald-Sun and Osmond 2013:152). By declaring himself discovered the weekend after Winmar’s proud to be black, Nicky Winmar ‘stood for the gesture, fans of all teams seemed to routinely way ahead in Australia’, with Australians having yell out racist abuse…One 74-year-old a responsibility to ‘tear down’ racial barriers woman and long-time Western Bulldogs (Klugman and Osmond 2013:152). According to supporter, Mary Millard, was happy to Klugman and Osmond (2013), ‘Winmar himself confess, ‘Of course I sing out “black bastard”, felt excited that his gesture might lead to change. but I don’t mean it. It’s all part of being at the “Yes!” he exclaimed when he saw the photos, footy on a Saturday arvo. Such supporters glad that finally it seemed like “there is someone were in agreement with Allan McAlister, the out there that is thinking like I am thinking, just Collingwood president, who had dismissed give us a chance”.’ The first response of the AFL, the racist abuse as just ‘ballyhoo’ because ‘no however, was defensive. It wanted to avoid contro- one is fair dinkum‘. (Klugman and Osmond versy rather than focus on its failings. The AFL 2013:159–60). If most were happy to admit that the racial vili- The actions of Winmar in exposing the ugly racism fication of Aboriginal players was acceptable that pervaded Australian Football and starting a because it was part of Australian Football culture, national conversation about the place racism had few went as far as Allan McAlister in unmasking in sport and society provided Michael Long with the notion of Aboriginal racial and cultural inferi- a platform from which to push the AFL further on ority that gave it an air of acceptability. Speaking the matter. As sports journalist Martin Flanagan on Channel Nine’s Wide World of Sports, the (2015:48) has noted, ‘Nicky Winmar pointing Collingwood president claimed that his club had to his skin at Collingwood in 1993 provided the nothing against Winmar or Aboriginal people in issue of racial abuse with an iconic image but it general, but added the following proviso: ‘As long was Michael Long, in 1995, who forced the politi- cal change’. as they conduct themselves like white people, well, The change that Long was able to force took the off the field, everyone will admire and respect struggle against racial vilification in sport down a them.’ When asked to explain what he meant, legal avenue. Long had the support of his club, McAlister made his position even clearer: ‘As long including the much-respected Essendon Football as they conduct themselves like human beings, Club coach, Kevin Sheedy, and the club’s presi- they will be all right. That’s the key’ (McAlister dent, David Shaw. On 1 May that year, Essendon cited in Klugman and Osmond 2013: 160–1). Football Club lodged a formal complaint with the McAlister’s remarks, intended to diffuse the situ- AFL seeking redress over the incident. In response ation, confirmed the fact that racist ideology that the AFL established a mediation process that denigrated Aboriginal people was pervasive in the would bring Long and Monkhorst face to face culture of the Australian game of football. As a to settle the issue. Long wanted a personal apol- key cultural touchstone of Anglo-Australia, it was ogy from the Collingwood player. Monkhorst hardly surprising that the AFL did nothing to end refused; instead, he told Long, ‘You took it the the type of racial attacks on Aboriginal players wrong way mate’ (Monkhorst cited Klugman and that had prompted Winmar to point out in public Osmond 2013:185). his personal pride in being an Aboriginal man. In its haste to declare the matter resolved, the The issue of racial vilification did not end AFL called a press conference for 5 May to bring with Winmar. Just two years later during the the matter to a speedy conclusion. Despite the 1995 Anzac Day match between Essendon and lack of an apology, AFL Chairman Ross Oakley Collingwood the issue again become a national announced that the matter had been successfully headline. This time Michael Long, the cham- resolved. Long had been silenced as part of the pion Essendon player, was racially vilified by mediation ‘settlement’ but the AFL had failed to impose any penalty on Monkhorst. Racism that Collingwood ruckman Damian Monkhorst. The targeted Aboriginal players remained permis- incident occurred late in the match when Long sible, or so it seemed. Long, however, had other tackled Monkhorst and forced a stoppage: ideas. Not happy with the outcome of the initial As the umpire blew the whistle for a ball up mediation, Long worked hard in pushing for the Monkhorst turned to Long and said, ‘Will matter of racial vilification to finally be taken seri- someone get this black cunt off me.’ Incensed, ously by the AFL. Critically, Long was supported Long turned to the umpire who apologized, by his club president, coach and a number of explaining that he could do nothing because high-profile non-Indigenous teammates, includ- there was no law against racial vilification. It ing James Hird. On 9 May the AFL’s response was the moment that Long decided to make was to direct its communications manager, Tony a stand against this type of discrimination. Peek, to consult with Indigenous players in the The incident with Monkhorst was not the league. Peek reported that racial vilification of first time Long had experienced vilification Aboriginal players was widespread, experienced either on or off the football field. Instead, it on a regular basis and perpetrated by a number was the confluence of many incidents he had of serial offenders. As a result of the determina- had to deal with… (Gorman 2011:148) tion of Michael Long to see change, on 30 June 1995 the AFL implemented ‘Rule 30: a rule to Due to their targeted actions and powerful combat racial and religious vilification’. Rule 30 argument for a very specific institutionally sanc- represented a seismic shift in Australian sports. tioned outcome, the ending of racial vilification For the first time in history the governing body in Australian Football, both individuals gained of a professional sport in Australia had prohib- widespread support from the non-Aboriginal ited competitors from racially abusing opponents. Australian public. Flanagan (2015) has asserted (Gorman and Reeves 2012:14-22). Importantly: that the persona of Michael Long was such that he succeeded in bringing the Anglo-Australian main- implementation of Rule 30 charged umpires stream with him. Both Winmar and Long spoke with ‘reporting instances of abuse’, taking with efficiency where the media was concerned. the burden away from Indigenous (and They tackled racism with a quiet and resolute other) players to report it themselves. The defiance, steadfast in their belief that it was they new rule set in place a process of confi- who held the moral high ground. Fundamentally, dential mediation for disputes in the first we believe, both men seemed content to let the instance, overseen by the Human Rights and Australian media and public consider the issues Equal Opportunity Commission. If media- tion failed the complaint could proceed to they raised without seeking to impose them- the AFL Tribunal. But despite the agitation selves at the centre of this national debate. In of Long and others, players would not be this, the approach both men brought to the poli- fined. Instead, clubs would be liable for up tics of race has been characterised as drawing on to $50,000 in penalties if the complaint was distinctly Aboriginal traditions (Beckett 2014; proven at the tribunal…Aboriginal players McCoy 2008; Musharbash 2008; Rowse 2000). welcomed the initiative despite the removal The dignified defiance of both Winmar and Long of fines. Long said ‘It’s great that the AFL found ready comparison in the old and revered has done something about it…I’m very happy men of the Aboriginal rights movement, like Sir something has been done about it. It’s been Douglas Nicholls, who dedicated his life after a long time coming’. (Klugman and Osmond Australian Football to achieving Australian citi- 2013:192–3) zenship for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and was rewarded by Anglo-Australia The change was significant. Martin Flanagan with a knighthood, an Order of the British (2015) considers Long’s intervention as the Empire and the governorship of the State of South ‘Mandela moment’ in Australian Football. Australia (Broome 2015; Clark 1965; Tatz 1995). Flanagan argues that Long was able to facilitate It was an approach that the overwhelmingly change because he brought the Australian public non-Aboriginal sporting public found concilia- with him in his crusade against on-field racism. tory, non-threatening and, therefore, politically The era of Winmar and Long occurred at a palatable time of transition as the old parochialism of the While it may be true that the public personas state-based VFL gave way to the continent-span- of Winmar and Long as ‘likeable men’ may have ning aspirations of the AFL, which aggressively enabled the Australian public to more easily follow sought to position itself as the national game. and support their leadership, we believe that the The interventions of Winmar and Long were Australian public came along with Winmar and about the specific issue of racial vilification of Long because their struggle against on-field racial Aboriginal people in the context of Australian vilification was fundamentally about equal- Football, and their stand against racism focused ity and the right to be treated as if they were on very particular and bounded incidents of Anglo-Australians. In this respect, the actions racism. Nicky Winmar’s iconic gesture lives on as of Winmar and Long can be seen as contiguous a symbol of the turning point in public acknowl- with the struggle for Aboriginal citizenship, and edgment of this entrenched problem in football, thus extend that history, which stretches back while the quasi-legal actions pursued by Long led to the 1860s and arguable further (Attwood to the prohibition of on-field racism through the and Markus 1999, 2004; Arnold and Attwood rules of the game. 1992; Chesterman and Galligan 1997; Davidson 1997). The overwhelmingly white Australian provide improved support for Aboriginal play- public came to sympathise with Winmar and ulti- ers and their families. More controversially, the mately to back Long against the AFL, a nation- AFL also sponsored historical investigation of the ally recognised institution and cultural icon of possibility that the Australian game of football, Anglo-Australia, because the racial vilification of first codified as the Melbourne Rules in 1858, may Aborigines in the Australian game of football had have Aboriginal influences derived from the Kulin by the 1990s become a glaring inconsistency with (most notably, Djabwurrung and Woiwurrung) their formal legal status as Australian citizens and game of marn-grook (in English, ball-foot). was out of touch with the core Anglo-Australian Tacit support of this historical theory has been mythologies of equality and a fair go for all. In the forthcoming in the form of an AFL-sponsored period since those pivotal events, Rule 30 of the monument at Moyston, Victoria, that celebrates AFL code has become a non-negotiable part of the the ‘Aboriginal connection’. An annual match game because it seeks to ensure all who play the between Sydney and Essendon, played for the game are treated as equals. Marn Grook Trophy, has also received official Freed from the curse of on-field racism, sanction (Hallinan and Judd 2012; Judd 2012). Aboriginal players began to prosper like never As a result of these initiatives, the AFL became before. Throughout the 2000s, the number of widely known as a leading institutional supporter players from declared Aboriginal backgrounds has of national reconciliation. In Aboriginal Australia, consistently hovered between 9 per cent and 11 the AFL became a preferred career destination per cent of all playing personnel at the elite level in where Aboriginal men might achieve their ambi- the league (AFL Community n.d.; Gorman 2011; tions as elite professional athletes. Nevertheless, Hallinan and Judd 2009; Judd 2010). This is a although the introduction of Rule 30 created an significant achievement given that Aboriginal and environment in which Aboriginal players were Torres Strait Islander peoples constitute just over welcomed as individuals, the battles of Winmar 2 per cent of the Australian population and no and Long in the 1990s did nothing to make the other Australian institution can boast comparable Australian game of football inclusive of Aboriginal numbers of Aboriginal people in its employ. The culture and traditions or the different understand- over-representation of Aboriginal players was a ings of the sport these cultural differences were direct outcome of the battles of Winmar and Long likely to embody (Gorman and Reeves 2012a; in the 1990s. Their actions and the conversation Reeves et al. 2016). It was in this context that the about race and culture they opened up contrib- career of Aboriginal player Adam Goodes was uted to greater AFL engagement with Aboriginal played out. communities across Australia. Based on the new culture of inclusiveness in the Beyond racial vilification: Adam Goodes as Australian game of football that actively encour- cultural warrior aged and embraced Aboriginal participation, the According to his playing record, Adam Goodes is AFL introduced an annual reconciliation round the most highly decorated Aboriginal man to have to celebrate the role that Aboriginal people have played Australian Football at the highest level. played in the sport’s history. The showcase match Goodes is a dual winner of the Brownlow Medal dubbed ‘Dreamtime at the G’ (‘G’ being short- (2003, 2006), dual premiership player (2005, hand for MCG, the Melbourne Cricket Ground) is 2012), four-time All-Australian team member now established as one of more popular and most (2003, 2006, 2009, 2011), three-time winner of anticipated of the regular home and away season. the Bob Skilton Medal (2003, 2006, 2011), three- In addition, the AFL has sought to actively encour- time leading goal kicker for the Sydney Swans age an ongoing relationship with Aboriginal (2009, 2010, 2011), winner of the AFL Rising Star Australia, establishing targeted community award (1999) and member of the AFL Indigenous engagement programs to support the development Team of the Century (Gorman 2011). Goodes of Aboriginal talent. At the elite level, the AFL, also holds the record for most games played for the AFL Players Association and clubs established his club (South Melbourne/Sydney Swans, 372 dedicated positions to foster relationships and games) and was honoured for his community development work with Aboriginal youth as recip- great rivalry in the competition when Goodes ient of the Australian of the Year Award (2014). was a central figure to it’… (ABC News 2015) Given these outstanding achievements, Goodes In direct response to the Subiaco crowd, 150 should be celebrated as an AFL hero in the same Australian institutions published a joint press way as Barassi, Coleman, Jesaulenko, Matthews release in which they called for renewed efforts to and many others have been; but this is not the stamp out racism in sport and everyday life, stat- case. Instead, Goodes is now commonly remem- ing, ‘Australia must and can be better than this’. bered for the ‘controversies’ that came to charac- (Australian Human Rights Commission 2015). terise the twilight of his playing career. Aboriginal Senator for the Northern Territory It is normal that AFL seasons past are and former Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris recalled in history according to the premiership- said Adam Goodes was booed because ‘he speaks winning team. In 2015 the premiers, Hawthorn, out for Indigenous people…He’s spoken out and completed the rare feat of winning three grand it’s made people feel uncomfortable’ (Schubert finals in a row. History, however, will remember 2015). Whateley agreed: ‘people are pretending the 2015 AFL season as the year the overwhelm- it is because he slides or he plays for a free kick. ingly non-Aboriginal public effectively booed a The truth is it is because he has called out racism’ champion player, Adam Goodes, into retirement. (ABC News 2015). Throughout the season, Goodes became the target When Goodes himself revealed to the media of persistent crowd booing on every occasion he that he felt the booing was motivated by racism, represented his club, the Sydney Swans. Goodes the AFL, as well as most leading football jour- had been booed in previous seasons because he nalists, called for crowds to stop. The booing, possessed the ability to change the course of a however, persisted and Goodes was effectively match, more often than not winning it for his forced into early retirement. Shortly after he team. This, however, was different. Across the announced the end of a brilliant career, follow- 2015 season, Goodes was simply booed for being ing the Sydney Swans’ semi-final loss to North Adam Goodes. Melbourne, he rejected the invitation of the AFL Opposition crowds booed Goodes at all to participate in a lap of honour at the 2015 Grand grounds he played at, but were particularly Final, as is the norm for retiring players. Goodes, unsporting and vehement in Perth. After a match instead, promptly left Australia for an extended against the West Coast Eagles at Subiaco Oval, overseas holiday. on 26 July, Goodes was forced to take leave from The controversial circumstances that plagued the game. Commenting on the behaviour of the Adam Goodes’ season in 2015 exposed the Subiaco crowd, highly respected ABC sports endemic problem of the game’s association with commentator Gerard Whateley described the ideological notions of Anglo-Australian domi- booing of Goodes as a disgrace: nance. Australian Football is a contemporary popular sport in a multicultural country that ‘Make no mistake, this is one of the most shameful episodes in the game’s history, the had in recent decades prided itself on its stance way Goodes is being booed at the moment’… in systematically outlawing on-field racism and ‘At its heart here there is a racist element. engaging in a high-profiled advocacy of national Not everyone booing is a racist but you are reconciliation with Australia’s Indigenous covering up the racist element. peoples. Despite the pleas of journalists, sports ‘If you are not booing for racist grounds, commentators, politicians and public figures to stop, because it never used to be part of your cease what many regarded as a shameful practice, day at the footy. coupled with Goodes’ own public statement that Stop, and let the racists boo and then call he had become the target of a racially motivated them out, because this is disgusting… public attack, the booing continued for the dura- ‘Adam Goodes has never been booed in tion of the season. such a manner at Subiaco before — keep in Those who continued to boo strenuously mind that the Swans and West Coast have the argued that race and racism had nothing to do with why the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal ‘Elizabeth’, too, thought the ‘problem’ was Adam Australian public had come to target Goodes in Goodes denying the booing had anything to do this way. Comments to online forums moder- with race: ated by the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper The media desperately wants this booing to are representative of how the public justified the be about race, which it really isn’t. Goodes booing while at the same time rejecting the prac- could be white, black, blue, green or polka- tice as racially motivated. Most said the ‘prob- dotted, and this booing would still be lem’ was Adam Goodes the individual. ‘Tiger’ for happening. It’s just him! He’s one of the AFL’s example, said: darlings, playing for the AFL’s pet team, and the way he prances around and begs for free Why doesn’t the media give some real atten- kicks, while whacking players and never tion to other football players that go out there being sanctioned…He’s just another kind of week after week and play as part of a team? villain, which footy has always had. Then we I’m getting so sick and tired of these solo star have the incident with the kid in the crowd, attention seeking sooks who think the game for which Goodes is named Australian of the revolves around them and only them. (28 July Year. Spare me! The A. Goodes Show is just 2015, in Herald Sun 2015a) nauseating — and it goes on and on! (29 July 2015, in Herald Sun 2015b) ‘Paul’ (28 July 2015, in Herald Sun 2015a) found the accusations of racism difficult to understand: West Coast supporter ‘Susan’ said, ‘I don’t boo ‘Please answer this. If everyone is so racist at the and I don’t believe in it, but this booing is NOT a footy: why don’t they boo the other 71 indigenous racial issue’; she went on to explain that: players in the AFL.’ It is entirely directed at Goodes’s on and off In a similar argument, ‘Andrew’ reiterated that field behaviour. He gets frustrated and lashes the ‘problem’ lay in Goodes’ personal inability to out like he did to Schofield and Yeo, and I for cope with crowd reactions: one, have never forgiven him for disrespect- ing the Australian of the Year Award. If he I booed Adam Goodes because he or didn’t respect it don’t accept it and he needed members of the media made an issue out of it. to take himself out of the running before the And now we are told it is affecting him I will award was announced. Karl Langdon said he boo him even more. That is part of football. was booed every time he got the ball. Was We boo or scream out sledges in the hope of it racist? Ben Cousins was booed by oppo- putting a player off their game. Most players sition supporters. Was this racist? And the don’t get booed constantly because it doesn’t list goes on. Come on media IT IS NOT A seem to have an effect. After a few rounds RACIAL ISSUE!!!. (28 July 2015, in Herald it stops. If a player being booed complained Sun 2015b) about it or did some sort of gesture on the ‘Lynda’ perhaps summed up better than most why ground to show their frustration I would then the public had come to boo Adam Goodes: boo them even more. The media attention on There have been various incidents involv- it this week will make people boo him even ing Goodes that have accumulated over more. As for Adam Goodes’ legacy. Is that to time, both on and off the field. However, be known as a whinge(r) [sic] because people the two that probably brought the whole dared boo him? Had he ignored it it would issue to a head were these. When Goodes have blown over by now. But instead Adam was appointed Australian of the Year he and other players comment on it and so it claimed that as a licence to direct his bitter- becomes bigger. If players during a game are ness regarding our history, at the non indig- noticing or commenting on it then it has an enous [sic] people of Australia, citing all as effect because that means they are not 100% racist. Australians are pretty laid back and focused on their game. And that is the whole accommodating people, but when push point. (29 July 2015, in Herald Sun 2015b) comes to shove they will not tolerate being accused of something they are not guilty not ‘the problem’; rather, the problem was the way of. Goodes had the opportunity to use his Goodes had begun to conduct himself in the public appointment [as Australian of the Year] to domain. Goodes, it seemed, spoke and acted in build a bridge and unite, instead he lacked ways that were considered inappropriate to large maturity and allowed bitterness to dictate sections of the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal his stance and he, himself, took the mantle public. The offence that Goodes caused seem- of racism. The incident on field, calling out ingly hinged on three decisive events that public the young girl [an incident of racial vilifica- commentary, including the comments above, tion directed at Goodes from the crowd at a repeatedly cited as ‘evidence’ that his actions and 2013 AFL fixture, which we discuss later] for attitudes both on and off the field had increasingly making a comment he deemed offensive and become unacceptable, offensive, provocative and, in doing so, exposed that child not only to the worst of all, ‘un-Australian’. people in the stadium but the whole nation On-field it was Goodes’ strong actions against on tv. [sic] coverage. I believe a lot of people racism that placed him off-side with the public. thought his reaction in that matter completely over the top and exaggerated. Those inci- In 2013 during the opening match of the annual dents, I believe, promoted Goodes as being AFL Indigenous Round, Goodes was racially vili- self obsessed and concerned with his own fied by a 13-year-old girl in the crowd. Leaning importance. There is no denying Goodes has over the boundary fence, the girl called Goodes made massive contributions in his football an ‘ape’. Goodes heard this and took offence. He career. However, latterly with the simulated immediately requested that the security team eject spear throwing incident which was blatantly the teen from the ground, which was in line with an ‘up yours’ toward the Carlton fans which the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s policy of eject- Goodes decided to claim under his indig- ing individuals reported for anti-social behav- enous heritage cloak. The public are pretty iour. The following day Goodes spoke to the astute and were not convinced of the valid- media and referred to the 13 year old as the face ity of the gesture. It is sad, given Goodes is of racism (Windley 2013). The public came to coming to the end of his football career that interpret Goodes’ response to the teen as an over- he has attracted such disrespect from some of reaction, not understanding why he took offence the public. However, now Goodes want(s) the at being described as an ‘ape’. Many also viewed slate wiped clean so he can finish on a high. It his response to the girl as heavy-handed and some is a pity that Goodes did not have the matu- considered it an act of bullying. This was typi- rity to temper his comments, see the bigger fied by on-air comments by the highly influential picture and put himself above the racist calls Collingwood Football Club president and popu- and set himself as the indigenous statesman lar media personality Eddie McGuire; on his he could and should have been. With hind- Triple M radio show he suggested Goodes might sight, there could have been a totally differ- promote the release of the stage play King Kong. ent ending, but Goodes chose his path and McGuire made a public apology later that day. has made his own history. (28 July 2015, in Problematically, it was described by the then AFL Herald Sun 2015b) chief executive Andrew Demetriou and the media The comments outlined above are both indica- as merely a ‘gaff’, attributed by McGuire to tired- tive of the public critique of Goodes and of the ness (ABC News 2013). consistent attempt to disavow any racist under- During the corresponding match two years pinnings to the widespread booing. Despite later, as described above, Goodes responded to this, most comments posted to the HeraldSun, the widespread booing that had by now become a Facebook and other online forums and social defining feature of his playing career by perform- media sites dedicated to Australian Football ing an Aboriginal war dance. As the dance invariably (but inadvertently) almost always drew concluded, Goodes threw an imaginary spear attention to the racial dimensions of the dislike into a section of the crowd occupied by opposition the public had come to have of Adam Goodes. supporters. The public reacted to Goodes’ display Goodes’ racial identity as an Aboriginal man was of Aboriginal culture as a provocative act that was openly hostile to non-Aboriginal Australia. Off the field, we argue, it was Goodes’ advo- Goodes’ war dance caused a national furore cacy on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait as the issue came to dominate debate on sport- Islander peoples that put him offside with the ing pages of the national press and social media. Australian Football public. As the 2014 Australian Few commentators, professional or amateur, of the Year, Goodes became a high-profile advo- believed that there was a place for such displays cate for Indigenous Australia. He called on all of Aboriginal culture and identity in Australian to respect Indigenous peoples’ history and on Football, not even during the AFL Indigenous going cultural difference. He said all needed to Round. Contrasts were made between Goodes’ recognise the past and present contributions of war dance and the New Zealand rugby team’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that Haka, which is ceremonially performed prior to make Australia a better place to live. Goodes re- each match they play. Typically, opinion was that minded the Australian public that we need to do while the Haka is scheduled into a fixture’s organ- more to ‘close the gap’, pointing to the abysmal isation, Goodes’ war dance was spontaneous and health, education, employment and life expec- unanticipated. Again, McGuire felt the need to tancy outcomes that continue to be experienced proffer his opinion, stating that the crowd ‘should by Indigenous peoples. Goodes, however, caused have been warned’ (Hogan 2015). Interestingly, offence when he used his Australia Day accept- the AFL Commission hesitated in respond- ance speech to remind the nation that Indigenous ing to the events that were unfolding. Its chair- Australians, including himself, continue to expe- man (and Rhodes Scholar), Mike Fitzpatrick, rience the negative effects of racism every day of and its chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, were their lives. He reminded Australia of the challenge seemingly unable to exercise decisive leadership, it faced to overcome racism: neither supporting Goodes nor the baying crowds. Growing up as an indigenous Australian I McLachlan issued an official statement, follow- have experienced my fair share of racism. ing an emergency meeting of the commission that While it has been difficult a lot of the time, took place several days after the events at the it has also taught me a lot and also shaped Subiaco ground: my values and what I believe in today. I believe racism is a community issue which Racism has no place in our game, and while we all need to address and that’s why racism I respect that people may have different stops with me…I believe we are all connected views about what is happening to Adam, it whether we like it or not. We are all equal is impossible to separate this issue from the and the same in so many ways. My hope is issue of race. The booing of Adam Goodes is that we as a nation can break down the silos being felt as racism — by him and by many in between races, break down those stereotypes our football community and, as such, I urge of minority populations, indigenous popula- our supporters to understand the toll this is tions and all other minority groups. I hope having, the message it is sending, and that it we can be proud of our heritage regardless does not reflect well on our game (Le Grand of the colour of our skin and be proud to be 2015). Australian. I’m not here to tell you what to think, or In this statement and others, the AFL Commission how to act to raise your children. All I’m here did not and subsequently has not explicitly attrib- to do is tell you about my experiences and uted the booing to racism. However, the Sydney hope you choose to be aware of your actions Swans came out in support of Goodes. The and interactions so that together we can elim- Swans chairman, Andrew Pridham, in his open- inate racism. I’m so grateful for this award ing address prior to the following fixture stated, and this honour, however the real reward ‘Adam Goodes has been booed relentlessly is when everyone is talking to their mates, because he is an Aboriginal and because he has to their families and their children, having had the courage to stand and speak about matters those conversations and educating others close to his heart’ (Le Grand 2015). about racism. What it looks like, how hurt- ful and how pointless it is and how we can was made absolutely clear when former A-League eliminate it. The ultimate reward is when goalkeeper and media worker Griffin McMaster all Australians see each other as equals and tweeted, ‘Adam Goodes calls Australia Day treat each other as equals. To me, every- invasion day…Deport him…If you don’t like it thing is about people and the choices we leave.’ When later challenged on this, McMaster make. I believe it’s the people and the inter- responded, ‘Disrespect this country and you cop actions between us that makes this country it. I’m not happy with the way he’s going about so special. Thank you so much and have a things.’ (cited in Mannix 2015). great Australia Day. (Australian of the Year In attempting to make sense of the nega- Awards 2014) tive public reaction to Goodes, we assert that This speech became a focal point for public dislike Goodes has become characterised as a problem- of the way Goodes behaved in public off the field. atic and divisive figure in the Australian game of Few had actually read it and instead of being seen football because he has consistently and influ- as a call for national unity in the fight for racial entially insisted that Aboriginal cultures have a equality, it became often misquoted as a call for place in the national game. The ‘controversies’ Aboriginal separatism and an open attack on the that the public repeatedly cited as ‘evidence’ of inherent racism within non-Aboriginal Australia his ‘unacceptable’ on and off field behaviours (see Sharwood 2015, Bolt 2013, Herald Sun may each be read as the failure of non-A boriginal 2015c). Anglo-Australia to accept Goodes’ assertion of According to these public commentaries, Aboriginal cultural belonging that has its basis Goodes’ advocacy of Indigenous rights and will- in the historical fact of Aboriginal cultures, ingness to revisit the link between the racism he traditions and ties to Country that pre-date the and other Indigenous people experience on a daily contemporary Australian nation-state by count- basis and the unsolved historical issues of coloni- less millennia. In making these assertions Goodes made himself unpopular with the overwhelmingly sation and dispossession brought the position of non-Aboriginal Australian public. We believe that Australian of the Year into disrepute. The prob- Goodes’ actions on and off the field have increas- lem many had with Goodes was that he admitted ingly been informed by a growing personal aware- when receiving the honour that: ness of his Aboriginal identity and the historical He says he finds it hard to buy into a celebra- facts that have impacted his own immediate and tory notion of Australia Day ‘because of the extended family networks, as evidenced in his sadness and mourning and the sorrow of our participation in the SBS television documentary people and a culture that unfortunately has Who do you think you are? (2014), where he can been lost to me through generations’. be seen learning firsthand for the first time who Goodes grew up believing Australia was his ancestors are, where they are from, and what founded on a summer’s day in January 1788 their history is. Throughout the documentary, we when Governor Arthur Phillip staked the flag see Goodes’ embodiment of Aboriginality grow of the British kingdom in the sand of Sydney and his desire to learn cultural practices flourish. Cove. Goodes has, in our opinion, come to the view that ‘I’ve obviously learnt different since then,’ as First Nations peoples whose historic presence he says. pre-dates that of non-Aboriginal Australia, both Nevertheless, he finds cause for optimism. he (as an Aboriginal man) and the cultural tradi- ‘We are still here, we’ve got a lot to celebrate tions (that are coming to inform his own identity about being here and that we have one of the position) claim not only a valid place within the longest-serving cultures still alive and kick- Australian game of football but a priority over ing.’ (Wood and Elliott 2014) non-Aboriginal Australia. Stated somewhat differ- Goodes’ use of the position for this purpose was ently, Goodes has increasingly become mindful of deemed by some to be highly inappropriate and the fact that wherever he played AFL football he many believed that he had acted in an exem- did so on the Country of an Aboriginal nation, plary ‘un-Australian’ way — a perspective that and that whether through the ancient history of marn -grook or the recent history of Indigenous Yet in broader society, Goodes’ assertion of over-representation, he also came to consider the Aboriginal cultural belonging in the Australian Australian game of football to be a central part Football has been regarded as radical and contro- of contemporary Aboriginal culture and identity. versial and has been condemned as unacceptable, When Goodes called the 13-year-old girl provocative and un-Australian by the overwhelm- a racist it was she who was forced to leave the ingly non-Aboriginal public. MCG. Goodes, a welcome visitor to the Country Goodes’ views on football and the place of of the Wurundjeri people, remained on the field, Aboriginal peoples and cultures within it were a space where tradition says men of the Kulin articulated long before the booing controversy. In Confederation met to play marn-grook (Hallinan 2008 he outlined his position in The Australian and Judd 2012; Judd 2008, 2012). When Goodes game of football since 1858, a publication spon- decided to perform an Aboriginal war dance sored by the AFL to celebrate 150 years of the during the Indigenous Round, he did so secure in sport: in an essay titled ‘The Indigenous game: the knowledge that the Sydney Cricket Ground a matter of choice’ (Goodes 2008), which was stood on the Country of the Cadigal people, a framed as a personal and subjective engagement people who had always been prepared to dance with the history of the sport, Goodes considers with strangers as an important symbol of welcome the Djabwurrung and Woiwurrung cultural prac- and mutual respect. When Goodes accepted the tice of marn-grook and its possible role as a fore- honour of being Australian of the Year, point- runner of the contemporary sport that was first ing out (though not in his acceptance speech) that codified in 1858. In concluding, Goodes says, ‘I Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people did don’t know the truth, but I believe in the connec- not find much to celebrate on a day that commem- tion. Because I know that when Aborigines play orates the foreign occupation of their homelands, Australian Football with a clear mind and total he did so in a way that reconfirmed Aboriginal focus, we are born to play it’ (Goodes 2008:185). connections to Country and their First Nations Later, during an appearance on The Marngrook right to persist as distinctive cultures within an footy show on the National Indigenous Television overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal contemporary (NITV) channel, aired 15th May 2008, Gillian Australia. In each case, Goodes’ actions indi- Hibbins, the AFL-endorsed historian, claimed cate his belief that Aboriginal culture belongs in that Goodes’ understanding of Australian Football Australia and occupies an unquestionable posi- and the place of Aboriginal peoples within the tion within the Australian game of football. In sport was ‘racist’; Hibbins (in Morrissey 2008) our view the booing of Goodes and the incapac- explained her accusation, saying, ‘If you define ity of the AFL to respond effectively signified racism as believing a race is superior in some- the immaturity and fragility of non-Aboriginal thing, this is basically what he [Goodes] was Australia and its inability to come to terms with doing’. The disproportionately critical reaction the facts of its own history, as well as the unwill- of Hibbins, a conservative non-Aboriginal histo- ingness of many within the Australian game of rian, to the notion that Aboriginal people believe football to acknowledge, accept or even counte- the Australian game of football exists as an arte- nance the possibility that an Aboriginal football fact of their culture, confirms Goodes’ status as a ethic exists and has taken root in the AFL. cultural warrior. Public reaction to Goodes appears difficult to explain, given the fact that his statements of Concluding remarks historical fact and demonstrations of cultural Goodes has effectively shifted the paradigm of pride both on and off the field have, in our view, debate about Aboriginal people in Australian never been forcefully argued and have long been Football beyond the discourse of racism and anti- expressed in the public domain. Indeed, in the racism to new and more controversial discussions context of Aboriginal society, Goodes is a politi- about the place Aboriginal culture has in the game. cal conservative as indicated by his public advo- Goodes’ belief in the marn-grook thesis, his self- cacy of the Australian Government-sponsored assured stand against racism and willingness to Recognise campaign (RECOGNISE News 2014). dance in celebration of cultural identity are highly significant acknowledgments that he played the historical fact that their occupation of the conti- Australian game of football on the Country of an nent pre-dates the contemporary Australian State Aboriginal nation, be it Cadigal, Wurundjeri or by thousands of years. In doing so, he reminded Noongar. The negative public reaction to Goodes the overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal public of is not the result of his personality but, rather, is these historical facts and in response they booed based in his insistence that Aboriginal culture be and called for his deportation. recognised and acknowledged as having a place in both the national game and the Australian nation. REFERENCES Beyond the many unconvincing excuses offered ABC News 2013 ‘Eddie McGuire apologises to Adam by his (overwhelmingly non-Aboriginal) critics, Goodes for King Kong comment but will not resign’, Goodes became a controversial and unpopular 29 May,