Adam Goodes has opened up on the impact his late mother had on his life and the heartbreak he still feels about the early stages of her life as part of the Stolen Generation.
Goodes has rarely spoken publicly since his retirement from the AFL in 2015, and has largely stayed out of league circles and events. His brilliant 372-game career was immortalised last week when the Sydney Swans erected a bronze statue of him outside the club’s headquarters.
The 43-year-old spoke candidly with former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand and said the only regret he had was the early life of his mother, who passed away last year after a heart attack.
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“It just breaks my heart to think that she was living in fear her whole life that someone could knock on the door and take her kids away at any moment if she wasn’t doing the right thing by us kids,” he told Ferdinand on his Get Real with Rio show.
“So if I could go back and change anything, I would just love to have gone back to my mum’s life, and in that moment, change the fact that she was taken (out of her family).”
Goodes became a lightning rod for criticism in the final two years of his career due to constantly speaking out about the racism he dealt with, but has not shied away from continuing to address the problem.
The Indigenous AFL great said his mother had taught him how to deal with racists early on in his life, declaring, “If I’m only known for football, I’ve failed”.
“For me, it has happened all the time, whether it be school, whether it be at the football teams that I played, and even at the elite level on and off the field, it was just part of my life,” he said.
“The best advice I got from my mum was she told me when people call you names, if they’re being racist to you, you just walk away. Be the bigger person, walk away.
“I learned later in life that when I had the confidence, and more importantly, I became articulate, I could actually confront it in my way.
“And that’s when I started to call out racism, that’s when I started to have a platform to be able to talk about racism – where it comes from, how it’s used, and more importantly, how it makes us feel.”
Goodes has skipped official AFL events since his retirement, and revealed that he’s played football (soccer) instead to stay fit after his career came to an end.
The AFL was widely criticised for its inaction when Goodes was being abused in his final two seasons and apologised to the Swans great four years after his retirement.
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