On Thursday night, Australia was presented a harrowing portrayal of our treatment of Adam Goodes, a proud Indigenous man, in the last three years of his AFL career. Specifically, the racial vilification he endured.
The Final Quarter, which goes for 72 minutes, follows a timeline narrative format walking Australia through the three years prior to Goodes’ retirement from AFL in 2015.
From the incessant “booing” of Goodes, a Sydney Swans player, to the racist reaction to his “war cry” celebration during the 2015 Indigenous round, the documentary presents the mere facts of what was said at the time by the media.
Goodes’ actions and Australia’s polarised reactions became fodder for every talk show, newspaper and opinion column nationwide. While a lot of Australians decried the racist comments made at the time, there were many high profile media personalities that continued to criticise the AFL great through racist remarks.
Here’s the trailer for The Final Quarter, available now on 10play. Post continues after video.
Eddie McGuire, Sam Newman, Miranda Devine, Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones in particular featured heavily in the documentary, just as they featured heavily in media conversations of Goodes at the time.
On Friday a number of those journalists who were implicated in the Adam Goodes documentary have responded to their portrayal.
Sam Newman, who was condemned on social media as the documentary went to air for his racist comments about Goodes, hit back against his critics.
“Heartfelt thanks for enlightening comments by my fellow Australians on Goodes doco. Would love to have been part of conversation, but wasn’t allowed. Glad I could help 10’s flagging ratings. Keep comments coming, please,” Newman posted to Twitter.
The documentary also includes Eddie McGuire’s infamous on-air comments in 2013 suggesting Goodes be used to promote King Kong.
“It’s very confronting and it’s heartbreaking to be involved in it in a negative way,” McGuire admitted on Triple M’s The Hot Breakfast on Friday morning.
“I encourage people to watch this documentary. What you have to do in these situations is you have to front up to things. It’s an eyeopener. And if that’s the bottom line, it’s been a worthwhile exercise.”
The media personality, who is also the President of AFL club Collingwood, further shared there were arrangements being made to air the film at his son’s school, followed by a Q & A session with McGuire.
“I hope it gives us an opportunity to, if it’s applicable to Adam, to get Adam back into the game,” he said.
“I really want to open up and talk about things and be open to a solution. We want people to understand … and look after Indigenous footballers.”
When the documentary aired at Sydney Film Festival last month, the AFL issued an "unreserved" apology for their lack of action at the time.
"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 statement said.
"We apologise unreservedly for our failures during this period.
"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."
The Final Quarter is available now on 10Play.
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Top Comments
My take out of this whole exercise is that it is now all but illegal to be critical of anyone of color regardless of how justified you may be in having issue with their behavior. No matter what, any criticism of personal behavior is automatically racist by default. You can only be critical of white hetero men now. I think I have got it. Thanks.
If that's what you got out of it, you didn't really understand any of it.
My take on it is that all of a sudden, "white hetero men" are finally finding out what it's like to live a life without impunity. It really must incense you to have your privilege taken away.
I go to watch AFL live weekly and actually do understand it, unlike those most loudly trumpeting racism. How often do you watch AFL live Laura Palmer?
Spare me the ‘women’s studies 101’ lecture.
Sam Newman doesn't like how he was portrayed? When all the documentary did was show his comments and commentary? Well Sam. all you had to do was not say the things you did and then you would have nothing to complain about. As for not being approached about the documentary, did he actually watch it to find out that there was no commentary or interviews? It was simply a chronological presentation of what happened and what was said. Kudos to Eddie Maguire for taking responsibility for his behaviour.
Nope. Maguire has been a dolt for years - he's walking his comments back now because he's been called out. He should have been shown the door years ago.
Fair enough. I'm no fan of the man but my comment about him was specifically about the comments he made about Adam Goodes and him taking responsibility for that.