What we don’t know about AFL Footballers
I remember the incident like it was yesterday. I remember thinking I can’t believe I just saw that!. Round 5 2007 when Adam Goodes barrelled into the back of Simon Godfrey behind the play, I am sure most of you would remember the incident as well (if you don’t then I have included the footage at the end of this post).I immediately thought that is so out of character for Goodes, and he completely out of sorts.
I was reading an article on Adam Goodes where he was talking about that incident and the personal issues he was dealing with at the start of the 2007 season. It made me think about how little the general public know of what AFL Football players go through outside of football. I mean all we see as AFL Football supporters is what the players do out on the ground every weekend and the odd interview or press conference they do, which is usually the stock standard answers anyway unless you are Jason Akermanis or new Western Bulldog draftee James Mulligan.
I am sure Goodes would have had his critics after his poor start to the 2007 Season but know one would have known what was going on. Goodes said that he was struggling with some personal demons and it was the incident with Godfrey that made him stop and think about what was happening in his personal life. It just shows that AFL Football players have so much pressure on them to perform at their best week in week out that that they forget about things outside of football which most would say are more important, as is well documented with Nathan Ablett.
It is a credit to Adam Goodes that he recognised that he had problems and did something about and not just go through the motions as a lot of players and people in general would probably have done. Lets hope we see Adam Goodes back to his best in 2008, he is a great player to watch play the game.
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