SYDNEY, July 29 (Reuters) - Aboriginal footballer and anti-racism campaigner Adam Goodes is contemplating retirement because of the jeering he has been subjected to over the last few months, Australian media reported on Wednesday.
The booing of the 35-year-old former Australian of the Year at grounds around the country has become a touchstone for a debate about racist abuse aimed at indigenous people in the country.
Goodes was jeered relentlessly by rival supporters in Perth last weekend, prompting indigenous Sydney Swans team mate Lewis Jetta to perform a war dance in front of the fans as an act of solidarity.
One spectator was ejected after being reported to security for shouting "Get back to the zoo!" at Goodes, an insult the fan later dismissed as "banter".
Goodes has been given two days off training because of the incident and, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday, was now considering not playing on until the end of a season he has already said would be his last.
The premier of the state of Victoria -- the heartland of Australian Rules -- said it would be a "tragedy" if Goodes, who has twice won the Brownlow Medal as the AFL's best and fairest player, was to retire.
"I want to be very clear ... People who are booing Adam Goodes, many of them are nothing more than racists," Daniel Andrews told 3AW Radio Station.
"He is being booed by people -- not all, but many of them --because they have no respect for him and no regard for him as an Aboriginal man and that is shameful.
"I am disgusted by that behaviour and it's about time people stopped dancing around this and called it out for what it is. It's racism, pure and simple."
Senior Australian Football League and Sydney Swans officials have also denounced the jeers and but appear powerless to stop what has become a major embarrassment to the nation's richest and best-supported sport.
Judging by internet message boards and talk radio stations, however, many in Australia see no racial element to the booing of Goodes and maintain it is provoked purely by antipathy to him as an individual.
Others have never forgiven Goodes for identifying a 13-year-old girl in the crowd who called him an "ape" in 2013, leading to her ejection from the ground.
"He humiliated a 13-year-old girl who didn't even know what she was saying, and the public haven't forgotten it," prominent conservative radio host and former Australia rugby coach Alan Jones said on Channel 7 TV on Wednesday.
"Someone's got to ask the question: why are they booing Adam Goodes and not the other 70 indigenous AFL players? Adam Goodes can fix this by changing his behaviour. He again today plays the victim."
For others, however, the booing stems from Goodes's outright refusal to accept racist abuse at his workplace.
"I hope the world takes notice of this," retired indigenous footballer Michael O'Loughlin told the Herald.
"This isn't a (Western Australia) thing or an AFL thing -- it's an Australian issue.
"To be called an Abo, a nigger, a black so-and-so, for your entire life, and then be expected to sit there and accept it, it's a reflection on Australia and where we are as a country.
"Because someone like Adam doesn't sit in the corner and accept it -- and neither would I -- he is booed.
"I won't be taking my children to watch football interstate until that stops."