Adam Goodes: Dockers coach Ross Lyon condemns booing as racist

Fremantle Dockers coach Ross Lyon has weighed into the Adam Goodes debate, labelling anyone who boos the Sydney Swans star as a racist and a bigot.

Lyon's comments come on the eve of Sydney's clash with the Adelaide Crows, where the Swans will play without the dual-Brownlow medallist who is on extended leave.
Lyon was scathing of those who would single out Goodes for abuse.
"If you continue to boo Adam Goodes, well you're a racist and you're a bigot," he said.
"And that would take this country back to the White Australia policy." 
Lyon said Goodes was a good friend and a player who he had coached.
"I really respect him, he's a great person," he said.
"So ignorance is no excuse, and the message is strong for the AFL."

Come back on the field, Peter Collier urges Goodes

But WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier said Goodes should return to the field as soon as possible to end the polarising debate that has consumed AFL football this week.
Mr Collier said the longer the debate over whether the booing of Goodes was racist had continued, the more divisive it had become.
"I think that the best thing that could happen would be for Adam to come back on the field and, quite frankly, I think he would be given a hero's reception if he were to come back," he said.
Mr Collier has worked as a high performance coach with elite athletes, including AFL footballers.
He said he understood the pressure Goodes was under, both as a footballer and an Aboriginal leader.
"The mind is a battlefield, particularly with elite athletes, particularly for Aboriginal people and Aboriginal players who face enormous social pressures on a day to day basis," he said.
"Now their culture is extremely important to them and when they feel that their culture is being challenged, of course they're going to respond accordingly.
"That's exactly what happened with Adam, he feels that his culture was being challenged." 
But Mr Collier, who is a staunch West Coast Eagles supporter, said he did not believe all those who booed at last weekend's match at Subiaco were motivated by racism.
He said West Coast fans were jeering Goodes as a Sydney Swans player, not as an Aboriginal.
But he said it was still wrong.
"If I'd been at the game that day I probably would have left, because I found the booing unacceptable," he said.
"Having said that, we've got to be careful that we don't overreact.
"A lot of the people who were at the game that day were not responding out of racist overtones, and that needs to be remembered."

Indigenous MP Ken Wyatt condemns 'bullying'

Federal WA Liberal MP Ken Wyatt said he believed the treatment of Goodes had been unfair.
"I concur with the lawyer in Sydney who says its a form of workplace bullying," he said.
Mr Wyatt, who was the first Indigenous person elected to the House of Representatives, said Goodes was an outstanding sportsman who had made a stand on important Aboriginal issues.
He said Goodes was not playing the victim.
"Accusing people of playing the victim if they're making very telling comments about a set of circumstances or conditions that Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people face, is a wrong summation of what Adam is trying to do," he said.
He said Goodes deserved a fair go from AFL supporters and he wanted to see Goodes return to the field.
"So let's hope all of us give him space, encourage him to come back and play in the game that he loves, and that he becomes a significant player again," he said.