John Longmire says he regrets not doing more for Adam Goodes in autobiography

John Longmire says in his autobiography released this week that he regrets not doing more to support Adam Goodes as the two-time Brownlow medallist faced "diabolical, almost unforgivable" treatment in the final years of his career. Longmire writes that he wished more people had acted to stop the abuse Goodes endured.

Longmire led the Sydney Swans for more than a decade before resigning in 2024 and won a premiership in his second season in 2012. He had been a Swans assistant as Goodes emerged and took over as head coach while Goodes was at his peak. After calling out racism from a 13-year-old Collingwood fan in 2013, Goodes was subjected to targeted booing from opposition fans. The AFL did not apologise unreservedly until four years after Goodes’s 2015 retirement.

Longmire directly addresses his regret in the book, writing: "I wish everyone had done more," and adding, "Adam Goodes was not just a champion footballer, he was a leader and a man of immense courage. What he endured was diabolical, almost unforgivable." He says he should have been more forceful in defending Goodes.

On possible actions he might have taken, Longmire wrote: "In hindsight, I should have threatened to pull our players off the ground if the booing didn’t stop," and continued, "It might not have changed anything but it would have brought the matter to a head and forced the industry – and the community – to consider what this continued behaviour was doing to one of the game’s greats."

Longmire recounts that booing intensified after the 2013 Collingwood match when Goodes called out a young Magpies supporter for calling him an "ape." "It was in that game that he [Goodes] called out a young Magpies supporter for calling him an 'ape', which started a firestorm that wasn’t of his making, but he showed great empathy," he wrote. Longmire added that "Collingwood president Eddie McGuire apologised on behalf of the club after the game, but torched that apology with an insensitive comment on radio a few days later that cut to the core. If only it had ended there."

The Guardian article notes McGuire later offered a personal apology by phone and in public, and in the 2019 documentary The Australian Dream he described his comment as "just a mistake, it was a misspoken moment." Goodes’ account of that call is quoted in the book: "When I finally took his call, I just said ‘you’re not a friend’. He just forgot where he was, he forgot that he was on radio, and it was just an off-the-cuff thing that he would say at a barbecue, at a bar, and it just highlighted my point. That casual racism is there, it’s alive and it’s flourishing in our communities."

Longmire wrote that booing increased again after Goodes was named Australian of the Year in 2014 and reflected on how the field became a place where Goodes felt uncomfortable: "It saddens me to know that the place Adam once felt most comfortable – on the football field, showing his skills to the world – ended up being the place where he felt most uncomfortable." He recounts those years with evident regret in the autobiography.

Last month Longmire missed out on the head coaching role at the Tasmania Devils when Ken Hinkley was appointed. After winning the AFL premiership in 2012, Longmire went on to lose his next four grand finals, and his autobiography is titled Pain, Perspective & Premierships.