Don't miss any of the news involving the Swans as we bring you everything from the newspapers around the country on Friday 31st July, 2015.

THE captains of all 18 AFL clubs have made an unprecedented plea to football fans to stop booing Sydney champion Adam Goodes.

As debate raged across the country on Thursday about the motivation behind the booing of Goodes, the AFL Players’ Association and the skippers gave a strong show of solidarity by releasing an open statement to the Australian football public.

Speaking on behalf of more than 800 players, the captains expressed their distaste for the constant booing of Goodes this year, which has seen him take a leave of absence from the Swans.

They declared: “Enough is enough”, urging fans to take a stand against any form of vilification.

"If people only remember me for my football," said Adam Goodes, "I've failed in life. I live by that quote."

The Swans star said this to me during a lengthy interview late last season, as his time as Australian of the Year was drawing to a close.

He borrows the line from Isiah Thomas, the former Detroit Pistons point guard from the 1980s who is considered one of the NBA's all-time greats, and twists it ever so slightly.

"He uses basketball," Goodes continued. "I change it to football. If I'm only defined by my sport, I really have failed. Yes, I've opened myself up for more criticism, but I'm a professional athlete. I get criticised every week. I'm used to it. It doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, but you get used to it."

These words echo louder than ever this week, cutting through the white noise of racist, misguided poison being directed at him. Perhaps never before has Goodes been hurt like this.

The rose-coloured view of history shows that Nicky Winmar's stance against racism in 1993 was received respectfully and considerately and sparked positive change in football and society. The truth is something else.

"Winmar was booed regularly after doing it because he confronted Australia," Swans chief executive Andrew Ireland says.

"The amount of articles that were written about him doing the wrong thing, that he shouldn't have brought that issue onto the ground, that what happens on the ground should stay on the ground, and all that - our memory of what happened has become quite distorted. It took a long period of time for it to start to resonate."

So it will with Adam Goodes. In 20-odd years, long after the justifications for the taunts he has endured have been forgotten, Goodes will be recognised as an athlete who knocked the nation out of its comfort zone of ignorance and bigotry.

"Our short-term concern is for Adam's welfare and his ability to come back to footy," Ireland says. "But then there are the broader issues. What I hope - and many people hope - is that the pain Adam is going through isn't wasted and it actually makes Australia a better country."

Sydney co-captains Kieren Jack and Jarrad McVeigh have taken aim at Adam Goodes’ critics for ­accusing the dual Brownlow Medallist of conceding defeat to the provocative masses by missing tomorrow’s game against Adelaide because of prolonged crowd abuse.

With ex-Brisbane Lions boo magnet Jason Akermanis joining the list of high-profile players and commentators telling Goodes to stop playing the victim, and with Shane Warne tweeting forth about a ticketholder’s right to boo any player getting their goat, Jack and McVeigh said the weight of Goodes’ burden was shown by his inability to set foot inside his safe place, his sanctuary of the SCG, since Lewis Jetta’s war dance in Perth.

The Swans were boosted last night by the returns of Lance Franklin, Kurt Tippett, Ben McGlynn and Ted Richards in place of Mike Pyke (knee), Goodes and the demoted pair of Xavier Richards and Zak Jones.

“As football players, you can almost come out to the football field and escape a lot of issues that you have,” Jack said yesterday.

“For Adam, he doesn’t see that as an option. It’s something he can’t get away from at the moment. It’s really upsetting to see it. To see your mate genuinely hurting like he is, and to see him have to take time away from something he loves doing, that’s something you never want to see.”

THE playing future of Adam Goodes remains uncertain as the club rallies around a champion player whose mental state remains fragile.

The Swans’ entire playing group, coaching staff and administrators yesterday attended the media conference in a show of support and solidarity.

Swans CEO Andrew Ireland also hit out at commentators, including Alan Jones, who said Goodes has played the victim throughout the booing saga.

“Commentators who make those sorts of comments constantly play the race card in a lot of things they say,” Ireland said. “I think it’s something that is constantly part of Australia and disappointingly so that some commentators will head down that route and promote that sort of view.”

IF ever there is one football club in Australia who can stop the booing of Adam Goodes it surely must be Geelong.

The Swans and Goodes in particular will remember the compassion the Cats players and fans showed following the death of Jarrad McVeigh’s daughter Luella in 2011.

Led by then skipper Cameron Ling, the Geelong players wore black armbands in Luella’s honour and expressed their condolences to Goodes, who remains one of McVeigh’s closest mates.

With McVeigh home in Sydney, Goodes was inspirational that day as he led the Swans to a rare victory at the Catery and shed tears for McVeigh after the match.

The AFL's longest serving chairman, former Sydney boss Richard Colless, says he feels ashamed of the sport he helped lead for two decades and has lamented football's delayed response to the vilification of Adam Goodes, which he has described as a stain on the game.

Speaking to Fairfax Media on Thursday, Colless - who finished at the Swans at the end of 2013 - said that after observing the taunting of Goodes all season he "could at times weep for the unfairness of it".

While he said his point was not to lay blame, Colless tabled regret that the AFL did not make stronger statements on the issue earlier this year when it seemed obvious to him that the booing of Goodes was a train wreck in the making.

As footballers we get used to the hits. From timid beginnings in schoolyards, backyards and local clubs, we train ourselves to take them and inflict them on our opponents.

Here and there little bits of armour are added. The whip-crack thud of bodies colliding can be unsettling at first, but after a while we begin to rely on the bumps and bruises. There is a curious comfort and satisfaction that comes with the aches and pains earned from the weekend's game.

Eventually the game passes all of us by and we might start to wonder, in our quiet moments, how will we get on in life without them? We train our whole lives to take those hits.

Adam Goodes is one of my heroes. He's a hero to so many footballers I play alongside, too. If it were simply down to his skills and ability as a footballer, he's a superstar. An icon of the modern game.

But I use the word hero on behalf of my brethren of AFL players to articulate how we feel about him in our hearts. He's a hero because he's got chin.

Sydney are formulating a low key but powerful show of game day solidarity for Adam Goodes as doubts continued to swirl over the dual Brownlow Medallist's playing future.

The Swans will have a simple anti-racism message reflecting the club's views on their banner and will air a pre-game highlights package of Goodes's career.

While the club is sympathetic to Goodes's situation there is also a view it must move on after an emotion-charged week. The SCG Trust, however, is expecting extra turnout from the crowd due to the Goodes factor.

Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett will come back to a Sydney side that has pledged to show their support for Adam Goodes by reversing their run of poor form against Adelaide on Saturday.

While the loss of Goodes is a setback after the veteran's strong recent form, the return of Franklin and Tippett from injury alongside seasoned campaigners Ted Richards and Ben McGlynn will bolster a Swans side which has suffered a dramatic loss of form.

But the Swans could not consider ruckman Mike Pyke, who is battling a knee complaint, while youngsters Zak Jones and Xavier Richards have been omitted. The changes mean the Swans will have 17 players from their grand final side of last year, raising hopes they can end their two-game losing streak against the Crows.

While Franklin had been expected to return after suffering back tightness in Perth, Tippett has made a quicker than expected recovery after having surgery to repair a broken hand last weekend.

THE Swans have lost Adam Goodes but have more than compensated with a stack of talent coming in for tomorrow’s critical game against Adelaide at the SCG.

Lance Franklin, Kurt Tippett, Ted Richards and Ben McGlynn all return after stints on the sideline through injury and suspension.

Tippett is the surprise inclusion after breaking his hand in the 89point loss to Hawthorn two weeks ago. The former Crow will line up against his old team after a plate was inserted, speeding his recovery.