DESPITE having to face another incident of racism, Adam Goodes says he is encouraged by the stand being taken by AFL fans to help stamp out the blight on the game.
Almost one year since the Sydney Swan was racially vilified by a young girl in a game against Collingwood, an Essendon fan had his membership revoked for making a racist comment towards Goodes last Friday night.
A fellow Essendon supporter had alerted authorities, while it then came to light an unidentified Western Bulldogs fan had also made racist comments towards Melbourne's Neville Jetta the previous week.
Goodes, speaking publicly for the first time since the latest incidents, was asked if he is feeling encouraged or disheartened by it all.
"Definitely encouraged," he said.
"Supporters across the League are taking a stand and the incidents out there are just proving that AFL supporters don't want to stand for this anymore.
"I take my hat off to those supporters because that's the environment I want to play in and put on a show.
"And that's the environment they want to be able to bring their kids to the football and watch the game and let the players do what they do best."
Goodes was speaking alongside his mother Lisa Sansbury, who has designed a special jumper the Swans will wear to commence Indigenous Round when they take on Geelong at the SCG next Thursday.
The design features watering holes, the ocean, communities and people and is one of 18 different designs all teams will wear.
Naturally Goodes wants people to continue to speak out against racism and says there are different ways to go about it.
"There's obviously different options," he said.
"These Essendon supporters felt very safe in their position, they said 'Who did that' and the guy said 'Yeah, it was me'.
"So their action was to get a security guard and say to that person 'We don't want you in the football ground and don't want that behaviour here'.
"If you're in a situation where you don't feel safe, there might be other options, whether you record it on your phone (or) whether you go to the police and single out that person in the seat.
"If you don't know where it comes from, it's very hard to find out who that is, but if you do record it, you never know through CCTV footage to be able to catch that person.
"It's about being safe when approaching those situations and the way the Essendon supporters did it on the weekend was fantastic."
Goodes insisted he is enjoying his role as Australian of the Year, despite facing criticism in certain circles, and said he had prepared himself for some negativity.
He is also overjoyed to finally be back on the field, featuring in the Swans' last four games following a four-month layoff due to his troublesome knee.
While he has been quiet, substituted out of his past two games, a new-look Swans line-up featuring Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett has strung together five straight wins.
"I can talk about my form or about my role, but I've only been back for a month," he said.
"I've had 10 months out, I'm just happy being out there and we've won those four games.
"Football can't be any better for me right now.
"Yeah I'd love to contribute a lot more on the field, but I can't start putting unrealistic expectations on myself.
"I just have to keep it low-key, I've got some other pretty big-name guys around me, so I'll let them do all the hard work."
