I have an admission to make.
I’ve called footballers big hairy apes.
I can’t remember if they were black, white or something else. All I know is that they weren’t playing for Melbourne.
And I’m not sorry for it either. I’d do it again.
I’ve also whinged about white maggots. They are the umpires.
And as a youngster I used to umpire junior football. That was a character building exercise.
If you want to know what it is like to be abused, get on the wrong side of a parent.
Football is exciting. It is why fans go along and cheer, get emotional and barrack until they’re hoarse.
And if you want to know something else, I think Adam Goodes would be a great face for the King Kong musical.
Not because of his ancestry, but because he is a tower of a man on the football field. He is like King Kong. Sometimes it seems like he is untouchable and I wish he was playing for Melbourne. That club is in desperate need of a couple of King Kongs.
This week has been a PR disaster for the AFL.
It was supposed to celebrate the skill of Indigenous players. They are exciting and genuine draw cards. Fans love them.
But now fans aren’t talking about that. Instead, they’re discussing why a grown footballer is so sensitive. And why the police are dragging off 13 year old girls to interrogate them about their barracking calls.
Now Eddie Maguire has become a victim of his own political correctness. I really don’t have much sympathy for him – he helped set up the victim game at the start of the week.
However, his comments highlight how juvenile our society has become.
The Thought Police and Rapid Joke Investigation Squads have jumped in to condemn Eddie for a comment, that was, well, just an innocent comment. There was no malice. There was no racism.
In fact, the whole debacle has become a huge joke. Except that it’s not funny and no one is laughing.
If you can’t handle a 13 year old yelling from the sidelines, as an individual the problem is yours, not hers. She’s just a girl.
If footballers are offended at being compared to big, hairy apes then maybe they are in the wrong business. After all, they make a living by chasing around a bit of pig-skin, much like a bunch of monkeys.
And if society can’t handle it either, then it says more about the brittleness of our culture than it does about anything else.
It’s time for grown men to grow up.
September 22, 2014
It’s just ‘brand management’…he’s obviously setting himself up for a career as an ‘indigenous’ commentator on all things,umm,’indigenous’.You need to establish credentials and provenance for a long post-playing future as a race-baiter..
June 5, 2013
I agree that the treatment of the 13-year-old was over the top, but I think Mr Goodes has a point. I cannot comment on Mr Goodes’ character – I’m not a fan of the AFL and know very little about the sport – but I can see why an Aboriginal would react so strongly to being called an ape. It was just over 100 years ago that scientists from all over the Western world believed Aborigines and Africans were a lesser species. They were labeled the “missing link” between Humans and apes. Science has shown they’re every bit as Human as Caucasians and Asians, but some people still compare them with apes, so it’s a sensitive issue for them. There’s a good documentary about it on YouTube. ————— http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eX5T68TQIo&hd=1
June 4, 2013
Hi Bernie,
I have to disagree with you on this one. Adam Goodes is a marvellous football player – tough as they come , a gentleman and an intellect. I thought he had every right to turn and point when he heard the comment and it will intetrest you to know he was devastated when he learned the perpertrator’s sex and then age and he showed great compassion for her in the following days. How do we presume to know what a person feels when he is told he is not even human and only because of the colour of the skin he ws born with. We shouldnt accept this kind of abuse at the footy or anywhere. This whole ‘harden up’ attitude is symptomatic of society’s ills and here you are saying that you are standing up for all that is good for society. Well on this you have got it wrong! Racism is unacceptable. We need to show charity and compassion for all of our fellow man and if we can’t even do it at the footy then what hope have we?
June 4, 2013
Bernie has hit the nail on the head. He states that Goodes is a fantastic player and would love a couple of players of his sort at Melbourne. Ape is derogatory, yes but it’s not linked to a specific race. Louise is wrong that the ‘harden up’ attitude is symptomatic of society’s ills. The ‘soften up’ approach is what society is pushing. We must not offend at any cost even if it’s true, we must be politically correct in everything we do, we must condemn and call for the job/blood of anyone we see as racist even if they are not and we must be super safe at all costs. This is the ‘soften up’ attitude society pushes.
The reality is that what we have seen with the Adam Goodes fiasco is simply another over exaggeration by the media and the AFL. Read a footy article, listen to any media broadcast on an AFL game or watch the Footy Show and you will soon see that every player is a ‘SUPERSTAR’, every scandal is earth shattering, every player is ‘DEVASTATED’ or ‘GUTTED’, every event is bigger than anything ever seen before and every commentator treats every game as super exciting. No player is referred to as solid, handy or dependable anymore. Its all hype, every bit from the start to the finish. It’s all about the money and the public sucks it up. ‘Scandal’ like the Goodes story sells newspaper, TV rights and puts bums on seats at the next Sydney vs Collingwood clash.
Stick and stones. I’ve been called worse things racially than an ape and you don’t see me whimpering in the corner or lashing out. Accept that some times you cop warranted or unwarranted abuse pay it no attention and move on.
June 4, 2013
I was at the game. It was fabulous and the incident marred it not promoted it. I completely disagree with you. Perhaps walk for a moment in a black persons shoes and then make a judgement on how words can be as hurtful as weapons or fists.
May 31, 2013
Like Rod above, I too have been saying almost exactly the same thing on Facebook. This ‘racism’ thing has gone from the absurd to the ridiculous! I thought footballers were supposed to be tough? This is a gross over-reaction. If Goodes can’t take an insult from a 13 y.o. girl it just shows what a wimp he is! And the only good thing about what’s happened to McGuire is that he’s been hoist by his own petard. Earlier in the week he had made some very pompous comments about the girl and how she needed to be “educated”.
May 31, 2013
Bernard said exactly what I was saying on Facebook on several pages. This whole issue was blown out of all proportion by a footballer in his 30s ABD the media who decided to make a story out of something that was trivial. Grow a pair, Goodes – you ain’t that special in the big scheme of things. You are just another overpaid entertainer/sportsman who has been LUCKY enough to play in 2 premierships and win 2 Brownlows. And speaking of Brownlows, what about Bobby Skilton? 3 times the player you’ll ever be, and he was called ‘Chimp’ back in his prime. Oh, he was white you’ll say. Well, my boy, ‘ape’ isn’t mutually exclusive to race. Look the wrds up if you care to. You have made yourself out to be a Prima Donna in all of this, Goodesy; and in doing so have villified a teenage girl for saying what any teenage girl would say at a man with a hideously ugly beard. Age your age for once and remember that picking on kids because you got ‘hurt’ over a 3 letter word is the sign of insecurity and a sign that you just wanted attention. All you had to do was ignore both her and Eddie. Instead you grandstanded and sucked in all those do-gooder PC nuts who want to sanitise both society and football to the extent that we are all wrapped in cotton wool. And what about Eddie? A man who you should be respecting above all as he is the one trying to save this game from being stuffed up by the useless administration like Demetriou and Co. The same administration pandering to these Pollyannas of society with their Thought Police and Newspeak. My sympathies lay with Eddie and the young Pies fan and not with some sook who can’t handle a bit of name calling due to a media stunt just because it happened to be Indigenous Round.
May 31, 2013
Well, I hope he is feeling very proud of himself for making such a big deal out of something said by a kid. Taken on her own by police who probably scared the living daylights out of her. Was that even legal? Was the assumptions that he made about her family just a weeny bit racist? After all white people are a race too. Although the socialists and minority groups don’t believe that white people have the right to cry “racist” or “victim” when accusations and racist remarks are hurled at them. Or maybe we have been taking it on the chin for far too long. Why would such a pussy even want to play football if he is so sensitive. i am so sick of all these double standards and different sets of rules. My tolerance levels are being sorely tested.
May 31, 2013
What if you were black?
May 31, 2013
Colour only enters into it in the minds of those who think it does. I wouldn’t care if he were black, white or brindle or pink and purple polka dotted. He cried over spilt milk, and made a media circus out of it. Oh, and BTW, he was heard to refer to the girl when he pointed at her from the Swans bench as ‘that bitch’. This from a supposedly GROWN man in his 30s.
May 31, 2013
My tolerance level for fools, grandstanding morons and their ilk disappeared long ago. I have never suffered fools gladly, nor am I likely to after this circus. I believe Adam Goodes to be nothing but an attention-whore, whose sole purpose was to gain some publicity for himself in the first match of Indigenous Round. Why does the League carry on with this charade? We are all Aussies playing Aussie Rules. Indigenous Round DOES NOT highlight the good play and the champion behaviour of the Indigenous players, it only highlights the differences in colour that would normally be ignored. Demetriou is perpetuating an outdated belief that the minorities are still being put down, and that racism is damaging society. I have spoken to plenty of Indigenous people as well as people from other races, and nobody can see the problem. It seems the people who are doing the most complaining aren’t the Indigenous at all – it’s the white Anglo Saxons and fair skinned people who are doing the most bleating over something trivial and minor. And all of this perpetuated by the media clowns who need their fix of writing complete nonsense to get their life’s fulfilment. We need to stamp out all this rubbish PC trip and get back to some reality before we wind up giving ourselves a brain haemorrhage by thinking ourselves to death.
May 30, 2013
Well said Bernie! I am suitably impressed with the erudition of this article. Goodes was among my favourite AFL players until this week, even though I have never supported the Swans. (go Pies!) Still a champion on the field, but a whinger when it regards insults coming from little girls.
The AFL have strangled themselves with their own policies. Even the rule changes and the punishment of players who bump each other in games reflect that the AFL expects wimpish behaviour from players. It has gone beyond ridiculous.
Next we’ll see AFL players in skirts, celebrating Sookie Lala round.
Nobody wants to see that.
January 26, 2014
This has always been my issue with Adam Goodes. Why make such a fuss about a little girl’s comments which she probably copied from her parents? Man up Adam and take your thumb out of your mouth.
May 30, 2013
That must go for everything then i guess. How far has society gone to think of comments as racist or sexist, that are just ones interpretation over the real non-malice behind it. It would go to as saying to that girl, that she is only a girl. Feminists would have a field day with that comment. It is getting so far out of hand it isn’t worth living on this earth any longer. The law is the cause of it all, abusing people and using peope to gain masses of wealth as if they are above everyone else. They are the ones who label this absurd rubbish and then the media, portrays it how they wish. I could say how slanderous it is, when “The Media” word things to manipulate a story, and do not care about the problems it causes. Ie The husband of a woman has been questioned over her murder, assuming guilt onto the husband before it even begins. Thereby defaming that person, even though the police have said that it is standard procedure, coincidently that bit is left out. But how far do we go? The law however love this absurdity because they profit from peoples misery.