Adam Goodes

Athlete and Indigenous rights activist

• Born: January 8, 1980
• Birthplace: Wallaroo, South Australia, Australia

Significance: Adam Goodes is a former champion Australian rules football player. A star player throughout his career, Goodes, an Adnyamathanha and Narungga man, ended his career in 2015 after experiencing harassment from fans. In retirement, he shifted his focus to Indigenous rights activism and community involvement.

Background

Adam Roy Goodes was born on January 8, 1980. His parents separated in his childhood and Goodes and his two younger brothers, Brett and Jake, were raised by their mother. His father, Graham Goodes, was White. His mother, Lisa May Sansbury Goodes, was Aboriginal Australian of Adnyamathanha and Narungga descent and part of the Stolen Generations—the people affected by past government practice of coercing Aboriginal children to attend boarding schools.

Goodes did not know much about his heritage growing up. As a young adult, however, he attended special classes to learn more about his Aboriginal roots and developed a deeper appreciation for his ancestry and his mother’s painful childhood experiences.

Goodes grew up playing soccer but switched to Australian rules football—also known as rugby—at the age of fourteen because the town his family moved to did not have an appropriate soccer team for him to join. His skills gained him immediate recognition, and by the time he was sixteen, he joined the North Ballarat Rebels, a development team for professional Australian rules football.

Life’s Work

When Goodes was eighteen, he was drafted by the Sydney Swans. During his debut year in 1999, he won the Rising Star award. He earned a reputation as a solid player and was consistently near the top of the team’s roster in scoring. In 2003, he recorded a number of honors, including the first of four appearances on the All-Australian roster and the first of two Brownlow medals, the highest individual honor given in Australian rules football. The Brownlow medal is awarded to the “best and fairest” player of the year based on votes from game officials.

A knee injury hampered his season in 2004, but he recovered in 2005, earning a spot on the Indigenous Team of the Century while also contributing to the Swan’s championship season. In 2006, he earned his second Brownlow medal and his second spot on the All-Australian roster—he also earned spots in 2009 and 2011. He struggled with a quad injury but was still part of another Swan championship season in 2012.

In 2013, Goodes was at the center of an incident that gained international attention. It occurred during a game on May 24 during the sport’s Indigenous Round, which celebrates the contribution of Aboriginal players and culture to the game. A thirteen-year-old girl in the stands called Goodes an “ape.” Goodes pointed her out to officials, who had her ejected. The girl later apologized and said she did not understand the comment could be seen as racist. Goodes urged leniency in the public response to what he came to believe was an unintentional slur.

Fans were unwilling to let the matter go, however, and relentlessly booed Goodes following the incident. In May 2015, he reacted by performing an Aboriginal war cry following a goal in another Indigenous Round game. Although fans reacted positively to the display, the booing continued, despite the efforts of league officials to discourage it.

Goodes retired following the 2015 season. In addition to the two Brownlow medals, two championships, four-time All-Australian team appearances, and being named to the Indigenous Team of the Century, his seventeen-season career also included being a three-time winner of the Bob Skilton Award as team best and fairest (2003, 2006, and 2011) and being the team’s leading goalkicker in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

In addition to his sports career, Goodes was featured in two documentaries and books portraying his experiences as an Indigenous man and athlete. Two films were produced about the booing incident that contributed to ending his career. The first, The Final Quarter, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2019. It was made up completely of game and other archival footage and newspaper headlines and told the saga of the booing incident. The second film, released in August 2019, was The Australian Dream. It premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and later played at theaters. The film used Goodes’ experience to explore themes of racism against Aboriginal Australians. At the time the first film premiered, the entire Australian Football League and its teams issued apologies to Goodes for not doing more to stop the abuse he received during his career.

He also contributed essays to several anthology publications. One, entitled “The Indigenous Game: A Matter of Choice,” was included in The Australian Game of Football, published in 2008. It discussed his experiences as an Indigenous athlete as well as his mother’s experience as part of the Stolen Generations. The second, “The Sporting Life,” was included in the anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, published in 2018, and discussed similar themes. Goodes also collaborated with his cousin O’Loughlin and Anita Heiss on a children’s book about his childhood and playing experiences with his cousin entitled Kicking Goals with Goodesy and Magic, published in 2016.

Impact

Goodes is recognized as one of the best players and athletes in his team and league’s history. He has also been honored for his community service and his efforts against racism directed at Australia’s Aboriginal people. In 2009, he cofounded the Goodes O’Loughlin (GO) Foundation with his cousin and former teammate, Michael O’Loughlin. The foundation aims to improve the life of Indigenous children through education and awards scholarships to young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students in Sydney, Adelaide, and Canberra. The foundation promotes employment opportunities and healthy lifestyles, too. During his playing career, Goodes also spent time volunteering on behalf of disadvantaged youth, especially Aboriginal youths and those who were incarcerated. In 2014, he was named Australian of the Year, an award presented annually since 1960 to a citizen who made a significant contribution to positive change in Australia.

Personal Life

Goodes married Natalie Croker in 2016. They had daughters born in 2019 and 2021.

Bibliography

“Adam Goodes.” Anzsog, anzsog.edu.au/about-us/contact-directory/adam-goodes/. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“Adam Goodes.” Australian of the Year Awards, australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/adam-goodes. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“AFL Apology to Adam Goodes.” National Museum of Australia, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/afl-apology-adam-goodes. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“The Final Quarter.” Final Quarter, thefinalquarterfilm.com.au/. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Go Foundation, www.gofoundation.org.au/. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“‘If I’m Only Known for Football, I’ve Failed’: Adam Goodes Opens Up in Rare Interview.” Guardian, 30 May 2023, www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/31/if-im-only-known-for-football-ive-failed-adam-goodes-opens-up-in-rare-interview. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“Indigenous AFL legend Adam Goodes: ‘Growing Up, I Knew I was Different.’” Guardian, 20 April 2016, www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/apr/20/indigenous-afl-legend-adam-goodes-growing-up-i-knew-i-was-different. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Lawrance, D., and Kylie Stevens. “Retired AFL legend Adam Goodes, 41, Confirms He’s Going to Be a Father Again ‘in the Next Few Weeks.’” Daily Mail, 21 Nov. 2021, www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10227847/AFL-Adam-Goodes-going-father-weeks.html. Accessed 19 June 2023.