The Final Quarter

The Final Quarter (2019)

This is what was said. This is what was heard.

Australian documentary filmmaker Ian Darling re-examines the incidents that marked the final 3 years of Indigenous footballer Adam Goodes' playing career. Made entirely from archival footage, photos and interviews sourced from television, radio and newspapers, the film reviews the national conversation that took place over this period.

Date of release
2019-06-07
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 10m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Ian Darling

Casting

Interesting facts

The Final Quarter is a 2019 Australian documentary, directed by Ian Darling and produced by Shark Island Productions, about the final stages of the Australian football career of Adam Goodes, during which he was the target of repeated booing by opposition fans.

Background

Goodes, an Aboriginal Australian, was drafted by the Sydney Swans in the 1997 AFL draft and went on to have a successful career with the Swans, featuring in their 2005 and 2012 premiership teams and being awarded a number of accolades for his performances including the AFL Rising Star award in 1999, the Brownlow Medal (2003 and 2006), the Bob Skilton Medal (2003, 2006 and 2011), and All Australian selection (2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011).

On 24 May 2013, during the AFL's annual Indigenous Round (the Sir Doug Nicholls Round), a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter called Goodes an "ape". Upon hearing the abuse, Goodes pointed the girl out to security, who ejected her from the stadium. Goodes was deeply affected by the incident, but said repeatedly that the girl should not be blamed; the environment that she grew up in had shaped her response.

Over the following years, and particularly in 2015, Goodes was repeatedly and loudly booed by opposition fans at most matches. The motivation for, and acceptability of, the booing generated wide public debate, which dominated media coverage from both sports and political commentators for weeks at a time.

During a match against Carlton in May 2015, again during the Indigenous Round, Goodes celebrated a goal by performing an Aboriginal war dance, in which he mimed throwing a spear in the direction of the Carlton cheer squad. Goodes said after the incident that the dance was based on one he learned from under-16s Indigenous team the Flying Boomerangs, and that it was intended as an expression of Indigenous pride during Indigenous Round, not as a mea…

Goodes retired from the AFL in September 2015. He did not attend the Grand Final, where retiring players traditionally take part in a parade, one of only a handful of players to decline this invitation since the parade for retiring players was established.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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