John Longmire, the former coach of the Sydney Swans, has voiced his regret concerning the lack of support he extended to Adam Goodes during the latter part of the AFL star’s career. He characterized the treatment Goodes received as “diabolical, almost unforgivable”
In his autobiography, released this week, Longmire looked back at Goodes’s final playing years, expressing a longing for more united action. “I wish everyone had done more,” he stated. “Adam Goodes was not just a champion footballer, he was a leader and a man of immense courage. What he endured was diabolical, almost unforgivable.”
Longmire’s Coaching Tenure
Having coached the Swans for over a decade, Longmire stepped down in 2024 after leading the team to a premiership in 2012. He had initially served as an assistant coach when Goodes emerged as one of Australia’s top players and took over as head coach during Goodes’s peak years.
The Booing Incident
After a 2013 incident where Goodes confronted a 13-year-old Collingwood fan for racially abusing him, he became the target of relentless booing from opposing fans. Although some condemned this behavior right away, it wasn’t until four years after Goodes’s retirement in 2015 that the AFL issued a full apology.
Reflecting on his lack of action during that time, Longmire remarked, “In hindsight, I should have threatened to pull our players off the ground if the booing didn’t stop,”
He recognized that such a response would have been drastic, commenting, “It might not have changed anything but it would have brought the matter to a head and forced the industry – and the community – to consider what this continued behaviour was doing to one of the game’s greats. “It would have been an extreme act – but then what was happening to Adam was extreme too. Unfortunately, there were no guarantees anything would have changed.”
Aftermath and Apologies
Longmire pointed out that the booing intensified after the 2013 match against Collingwood, particularly following remarks made by former Magpies president Eddie McGuire. McGuire suggested that Goodes could promote the musical King Kong.
Longmire recounted, “It was in that game that he [Goodes] called out a young Magpies supporter for calling him an ‘ape’, which started a firestorm that wasn’t of his making, but he showed great empathy,”
After the game, McGuire apologized on behalf of the club, but later undermined his apology with an inappropriate remark during a radio broadcast. Longmire expressed his disappointment that the situation did not improve in the aftermath.
McGuire later offered a personal apology to Goodes, which was captured in the 2019 film The Australian Dream. In this, he described his remark as “Collingwood president Eddie McGuire apologised on behalf of the club after the game, but torched that apology with an insensitive comment on radio a few days later that cut to the core. If only it had ended there.”
Goodes himself shared his recollection of the phone call from McGuire, saying, “just a mistake, it was a misspoken moment”
Longmire noted that booing escalated again after Goodes was named Australian of the Year in 2014. He lamented, “When I finally took his call, I just said ‘you’re not a friend’,”
Longmire’s Recent Developments
Recently, Longmire missed the chance to become the head coach of the Tasmania Devils, as Ken Hinkley was appointed instead. After securing the AFL premiership in 2012, Longmire encountered a series of disappointments, losing his next four grand finals. His autobiography is titled Pain, Perspective & Premierships.
