By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, July 28 (Reuters) - Adam Goodes, a champion Aboriginal footballer and a former Australian of the Year, has been given time off by his Sydney Swans team after suffering months of jeering from spectators in the country's premier sports competition.
Anti-racism activist Goodes has been booed by crowds for most of this Australian Football League (AFL) season, alarming Aboriginal advocates and shining a spotlight on race relations in a country that sees itself as a beacon of tolerance.
The 35-year-old was jeered relentlessly by rival supporters in Perth on the weekend, prompting Aboriginal team mate Lewis Jetta to perform a war-dance goal celebration in front of the terraces as an act of solidarity.
Senior AFL officials have denounced the jeers and rival players have called on their fans to stop but the AFL appears powerless to quell what has become a highly embarrassing sideshow to the national championship.
Swans coach John Longmire said the strain had taken its toll on Goodes, a two-time Brownlow medallist as the league's 'best and fairest' player.
"He's sick and tired of what's been happening for a long time," Longmire told local media in Sydney.
"Adam needs a couple of days away from the football club and to take a breath about it."
NO PRESSURE TO RETURN
Longmire said it was up to his player whether he wanted to return for the team's match against the Adelaide Crows on Saturday.
"We need to make sure that we're fully supportive of him and wait a day or two and let things settle down and he'll decide that... There's no pressure on him at all."
A prominent and outspoken community leader, Goodes has been forthright in discussing race in a country where indigenous people lag behind the mainstream in human development indicators, including infant mortality and life expectancy.
Other Aboriginal players are free from harassment but Goodes has become a lightning rod for criticism from conservative pundits since a racially charged incident involving a 13-year-old spectator in 2013.
During a match against Melbourne team Collingwood Magpies, Goodes was called an 'ape' by a teenage girl. He stopped play to alert security staff, who ejected her from the stadium.
Goodes was both applauded and lambasted for the public take-down of the girl.
His acceptance of the prestigious Australian of the Year title for his advocacy work the following year was to prove similarly polarising.
Critics on social media say their booing has little to do with racism and more with the way Goodes plays, claiming he 'stages' or tries to con umpires into giving him free kicks by feigning illegal contact from opponents.
The justifications were given short shrift by Swans chairman Andrew Pridham.
"They've tried to come up with a whole host of reasons," he said. "I know it's my view and the view of the club, it's 100 percent racist. That's what's driving it." (Editing by John O'Brien)