Comments
When Adam Goodes was booed, week after week, until the champion was disappointed with the gamethe onus to catch the extras was the AFL’s.
Goodes was booed by some supporters from almost every club, except his own. The extent to which the booing was motivated by racism was disputed, but it was clear to me that Goodes had been booed, in large part, because he had taken a stand on Indigenous/apartheid issues. following an incident in which he was racially abused and a 13-year-old girl in a Collingwood game on national television and highlights.
The boos were huge in 2014 and 2015. Goodes, who had not been booed for 300 or more games in his career, had been named Australian of the Year before he was booed in an unusual way.
The AFL was slow to get off the mark and leveled up, in what was Gillon McLachlan’s worst episodeas the AFL’s chief executive at the time he wanted to balance the different sides in the game – including the AFL Commission – rather than saying that Goodes’ booing was offensive and finding ways to stop it.
More than a decade since his retirement, The good remain in exile.
Today, it is the Adelaide Crows, rather than the AFL, who bear the primary responsibility for persuading the crowd to stop booing opposition footballer Isaac Quaynor. due to the incident that happened in the fieldwhose ripples in the pond spread far beyond the boundary line.
Unlike the Goodes situation, this drama is for fans of only one club, Adelaide. The victim of booing is not so much Quaynor – though of course not acceptable to the Collingwood keeper. Those offended are many within the gay community.
It is more difficult to deal with the behavior of a section of fans than that of players and officials. This was illustrated graphically during the Goodes saga.
But this does not absolve the Adelaide Crows of responsibility; at the very least, they must do their best to stop Quaynor’s booing the next time they play Collingwood.
It could happen six weeks from now, in the 2026 finals series. Or next year.
Some boos will claim that they are not booing Quaynor because of homophobia, just as many people thought that Goodes booed him was due to being played or perceived to have lost by the champion.
It’s true that many Crow pundits will see Quaynor as a fraud, whose testimony denied Izak Rankine during last year’s final. Some may have had beer skin. Some may blame the AFL and Victoria’s dark machinations against their club.
If there was a standard denial of booing before – “we’re booing him because he played at Rankine” – that excuse won’t hold up when gay, bisexual and transgender people, including some bisexual AFLW Adelaide players, are outraged and see Quaynor’s booing as a bit normal.
Matthew Nicks had wanted to stop the fans from booing in the lead up to the game. Alas, the coach’s admonitions were not heeded.
But Nicks’ choice of words – and even the club’s after the defeat – didn’t hit the mark with Mitch Brown, the AFL’s first bisexual (former) player who felt their boos were homophobic and that the Adelaide coach was nowhere near strong enough in condemning them.
“If you want (to be stamped) out, if you look down the barrel of that camera and say, ‘We’re not in control of this’ (it’s going to have more impact) … who are you trying to protect when you’re like, ‘It’s an exciting game’?”
Brown suggested Nicks didn’t want fans to hate him for calling them out.
Nicks’ opponents in the Goodes imbroglio at the time were Fremantle coach Ross Lyon and long-serving West Coast CEO Trevor Nisbett. The leaders of both clubs were clear in telling their own members and fans that if they were to boo Goodes, it would be unacceptable.
“If you’re going to continue to boo Adam Goodes, then you’re a racist and you’re a bigot,” said Lyon.
Interestingly, Lyon and Nisbett were willing to risk opposition from members, and their stance made all the difference when the AFL was asleep at the wheel.
Adelaide can show similar leadership, if they want. The first step is a change of language, without the characteristics of “enthusiastic” fans.
One accepted problem in cases of homophobia in the AFL – which have increased since 2024 (especially in games at VFL level), when players began to publicize the use of the F word – is that the sexual preference of the victim is not necessarily bisexual (it usually is not) and is a personal identity, when a person’s race is visible or known nearby.
The AFL’s investigation into the Rankine scandal was not handled in a way that eliminated homophobia.
Rankine was given a five-game suspension, which prompted the Ravens to fight hard against the extent of the suspension, which was eventually reduced to four games. Club chairman John Olsen called in his AFL counterpart Richard Goyder, as part of the lobbying process.
This column’s view is that the AFL’s increase in penalties, from three to four or five matches, was unwise and counterproductive, as it encouraged clubs to have lawyers and fight them on the bench.
If the ban on homophobia were three matches, as Jeremy Finlayson received in the first event in 2024, there would be a very strong backlash, and – at least – the person who received the slur would not be targeted by hateful fans.
What can the crows do from here? Treatment is always more difficult than diagnosis. But they can start with unequivocal statements.
The ABC’s Corbin Middlemas, who is openly gay, was another who felt Adelaide should have been tougher in condemning their race. He floated (on Fox Footy) the more extreme idea that the AFL could prevent the Crows from hosting Collingwood for a number of years, hitting the ground running.
One lesson from the Goodes saga was that fans can be swayed by their star players. If it hurt Shaun Burgoyne to hear Goodes booed by Hawthorn supporters – Burgoyne said he “hated boos” – the maroon and gold booers can stop.
Jordan Dawson, who spoke to the AFL Players Association on Friday, is a dynamic and thoughtful leader who can speak straight down the barrel of a camera.
The Crows, along with Port Adelaide, used the power of players in a bid to curb anti-social behavior at Showdown games. The results were mixed.
Inside the Crows, there was a consensus that when the Rankine-Quaynor incident broke in August that this could be a dark cloud that hung over the club for two or three years.
One can only hope it doesn’t make the finals if they meet Collingwood, or next year. Action – if only in the form of the right words – is now required.
Stay tuned for the best AFL news in the country. Subscribe to the Real Footy newsletter.
Jake Niall is a Walkley Award-winning sports journalist and senior AFL writer for The Age.Connect through X or email address.
