Sam Newman's shock move after Adam Goodes controversy

TV personality Sam Newman has sprung a shock move in the wake of heavy criticism stemming from the Adam Goodes documentary.

Newman has consistently come under the firing line, following the airing of The Final Quarter, the documentary that shone a light on the awful treatment that forced the Sydney Swans legend into retirement.

The two-time Brownlow medallist and two-time premiership player was booed relentlessly at games around Australia before he hung up the boots in 2015.

The documentary - which is made up entirely of archival footage - heavily featured the criticism that Newman aimed at Goodes at the time.

It also touched on deep issues of racism within the AFL and the wider Australian community - with Newman branded as a racist by many Goodes supporters.

Newman has infamously claimed Goodes wasn’t being booed because he was Aboriginal, but rather because he was acting ‘like a jerk’.

He also doubled down on that sentiment at the recent swimming world titles in South Korea, likening the Goodes situation with controversial swimmer, Sun Yang.

The Chinese swimmer - having previously been convicted of doping - has been roundly booed by fans, with Australia's Mack Horton famously leading the protests against his rival.

Newman says the boos for Sun Yang have nothing to do with his race, but everything to do with his chequered past.

The former AFL Footy Show made the connection to Goodes in the form of a social media post, laced with sarcasm.

Newman has been frequently criticised for failing to see the bigger picture and understand the cultural significance of Goodes' unsavoury treatment - making his latest move that much more surprising.

Taking to social media, Newman posted a picture of himself with the managing director of Nyuka Wara Consulting, Eddie Moore, revealing that he had agreed to undertake Indigenous cultural training in the wake of the Goodes furore.

AFL laments ‘mistakes’ made in Goodes saga

Newman's latest move comes after the AFL unreservedly apologised for its failure to call out the racism that drove Goodes into retirement in 2015.

The league admitted before the premiere of documentary The Final Quarter, that its inaction "let down all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and present".

"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 read.

"Through Adam's story, we see the personal and institutional experience of racism. We see that Australia's history of dispossession and disempowerment of First Nation's people has left its mark.

"Racism, on and off the field, continues to have a traumatic and damaging impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players and communities.

"We are unified on this, and never want to see the mistakes of the past repeated."

In 2015, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan refused to describe the jeers as racism, however, he too has now conceded that was wrong.

"I should have called it earlier and been clearer," the AFL boss said on 3AW.

Goodes' championing of issues outside football, such as Indigenous constitutional recognition, and celebration of Indigenous culture in the form of a war cry at the SCG is documented in the film.

With AAP