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'Truly awful': USA's disgusted reaction to Adam Goodes doco

Adam Goodes is pictured playing for the Sydney Swans in 2015.
Adam Goodes' documentary 'The Australian Dream' premiered in the U.S this week, garnering a shocked reaction from viewers. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

With the Black Lives Matter movement still in full swing in the United States, American audiences have had a horrified reaction to the initial screenings of AFL legend Adam Goodes’ The Australian Dream documentary.

The documentary, which first aired in Australia in 2019, chronicled the final years of Goodes’ lengthy football career, in which he was practically forced from the game amid constant, racially motivated booing stemming from his efforts to call out racism in AFL culture and Australian society more broadly.

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The film was shown in the US thanks to the production’s ties to Australian NBA star Ben Simmons, who served as an executive producer on the project.

As the film first aired on ESPN, shocked viewers took to social media to discuss how poorly Goodes was treated by the Australian public after a glittering sporting career.

“A lot of Australians still need to get on the right side of this,” columnist Ed Killer wrote.

Other users were shocked by the extent of the denigration Goodes faced, while ultimately drove him to exile himself from the sport.

Ben Simmons role in getting Goodes to America

Discussing the documentary with ESPN reporter Marc J. Spears in October 2019, Simmons said his own experiences with racial discrimination in Australia had, in part, motivated to become involved in the project.

Simmons said observing the way Goodes had dealt with such an unfair situation had given him a wealth of respect for the Sydney Swans legend.

“It was really about how he carried himself and really opening people’s eyes about saying certain things during a game,” Simmons said.

“No matter what it is, it is disrespectful. And everybody should be treated equally. … He was called a ‘monkey’ or ‘ape’ on social media for months.

“People booing him every time he touched the ball. He handled it.

“I got a lot of respect for Adam the way he handled it.

“I don’t know if I would’ve handled it the same way. But he handled it the right way.

“And I think that’s one thing that everybody respects about him, and I’m really appreciative of him and his people.”