Anti-racism icon Adam Goodes rejects Hall of Fame invitation

Several days later, Eddie McGuire, the Collingwood club president and a high-profile Melbourne broadcaster, was forced to apologize for jokingly suggesting on a Melbourne radio station that Goodes be used to promote the musical King Kong.

Goodes played 372 matches for the Swans, his only AFL team, from 1999 to 2015. He kicked 464 goals over those 17 seasons, won his two Brownlow Medals in 2003 and ‘06 and was part of the championship-winning teams in ’05 and ’12.

He was named Australian of the Year in 2014, when the awards committee commending him for being a “great role model and advocate for the fight against racism both on and off the field.”

Such was his profile that Goodes threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a Los Angeles Dodgers-Arizona Diamondbacks game at the Sydney Cricket Ground in March 2014 when Major League Baseball opened the season Down Under.

Since retiring, Goodes has rarely given media interviews, but he told The Guardian last year that he had severed most of his ties with his sport.

“I’ve tried to go to games and I haven’t enjoyed it. It’s really sad, because my godchildren love going to the football,” Goodes said.

The end to Goodes’ playing career was the focus of two documentaries, The Australian Dream and The Final Quarter, in 2019.