AFL committee president Richard Goyder apologised to Swans large Adam Goodes astatine past night's Australian Football Hall of Fame awards, describing the league's nonaccomplishment to basal with Goodes during the 2015 booing of the Sydney Swans champion arsenic a "stain for our game".
Goodes declined to judge induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Goyder addressed the contented again astatine the commencement of Tuesday night's ceremony.
He said the extremity of the dual Brownlow Medallist's AFL vocation was an incredibly hard play that caused large wounded for the Indigenous great.
Goodes was driven from shot six years agone owed to racism but it took until 2019 for the AFL to unreservedly apologise for not supporting him.
Goyder said helium understood wherefore the Swans fable knocked it backmost his induction astatine this time.
"Adam Goodes is 1 of the top players successful our game's past and has fixed our crippled much than it could ever instrumentality to him with his work connected and disconnected the ground," Goyder said.
"The decision to his AFL vocation with the Sydney Swans was an incredibly hard play that caused large wounded for Adam and the consequent clip it took for the crippled to recognise and apologise for this wounded besides had a precise important impact.
"Our nonaccomplishment to basal with him astatine the clip it was happening and telephone retired what was happening was a stain for our game.
"We privation lone the champion for Adam arsenic a hubby and father, and person wrong our community."
In June, erstwhile Goodes' Hall of Fame determination became public, Goyder said the league did not bash capable to basal with the Swans superstar.
"The unreserved apology that the crippled provided him successful 2019 was excessively late, but, connected behalf of our Commission and the AFL, I apologise unreservedly again for our failures during this period," helium said.
"Failure to telephone retired racism and not lasting up for Adam fto down each Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, past and preset.
'We anticipation that determination volition beryllium a clip successful the aboriginal erstwhile Adam volition privation to beryllium connected to the crippled again.
"This is simply a determination for Adam and Adam lone and we recognize and respect his choice."
For a regular dose of the champion of the breaking quality and exclusive contented from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!