Adnyamathanha/Narungga man Adam Goodes (b. 1980) is a former champion AFL footballer who played 369 games with the Sydney Swans. Born in Wallaroo, South Australia, he won the AFL Rising Star award in 1997, the year he commenced with the Sydney Swans. Recognised as one of Australia’s great footballers, he is a dual Brownlow medallist, a four-time All-Australian member of the Indigenous Team of the Century, and has represented Australia in the International Rules Series. In 2014, he broke the record for the most AFL games played by an Indigenous footballer. He has been actively involved with several Indigenous sport and community programs and has spent time working with troubled youth and in youth detention centres. With his cousin and fellow AFL football star Michael O’Loughlin, Goodes established the GO Foundation in 2009 to provide educational opportunities and mentoring for the next Indigenous generation. Awarded Australian of the Year in 2014, he has challenged endemic racism both on and off the field, however repeated on-field heckling and a lack of support from the AFL led to his early retirement in 2015. As a result, he did not take part in the traditional lap of honour reserved for retiring players. Since then, he co-founded the Indigenous Defence and Infrastructure Consortium, which helps Indigenous businesses work in long-term nation building projects. He is also a board member of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation and STAND (Support Through Natural Disasters), and an Ambassador for the Racism It Stops With Me campaign. In 2021 he rejected an offer to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
