Dr Sean Gorman - Duff and the Doctor (05.08.2026)

**Dr Sean Gorman** (0:00)
Teens share everything. That may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis.

**Mark Duffield** (0:05)
Even if your teen's been vaccinated in the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations. Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today.

**Dr Sean Gorman** (0:13)
Sponsored by GSK.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:18)
I got a bad case of loving you.

**Mark Duffield** (0:22)
Yes, welcome back to the SCNWA studio out here at Optus Stadium on this Wednesday morning in Perth. It is time for Duff and the doctor brought to you by Blakline. That's B-L-A-K line, Aboriginal line business delivering signage, print, promotional products, and creative services with cultural integrity and impact. And we've got some things to talk about this morning. Good morning, Dr. Sean Gorman.

**Dr Sean Gorman** (0:48)
G'day Duff, g'day listeners.

**Mark Duffield** (0:50)
This from former Sydney coach, John Longmire.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:55)
Yeah, well, I mean, we tried our best to support Adam through that period. That was once he got named Australian of the year, and he was still a current player. And for some reason, there was this really big sort of, you know, not so much a push, but a groundswell of people that had really strong opinions.
And it really went for about three years. And we tried to keep it as normal as possible because Adam felt like the footy club was the most safe place. He'd come to the football training and just get on and do his job and forget all the noise outside. We forget, so looking back, it was so much noise outside. It was such a big issue. And he just wanted to come to work and get on with his job. And that's what we tried to do. And I said in the book that in hindsight, I wish I'd have actually almost let a player walk out during a game and said, stop the booing. I mean, as a coach, you get caught up in the winning and trying to win every game. You're not really aware of it during the game, but at some point it needed to stop. It would have been drastic.

**Mark Duffield** (1:58)
Sean, as much as we all wanted to support Adam, I worry about when you give people, the sort of people who were booing Adam, when you give them fodder like that, whether it actually would help solve the problem or whether it would have escalated the problem. Give us your thoughts. I mean, that's clearly what it does cut to, is the impact this had on Adam, and probably by extension, on the people around him and within the Sydney Swans Footy Club. But do you reckon something like that would have solved the problem? Or do you reckon it would have made it worse?

**Dr Sean Gorman** (2:34)
Well, hindsight's a wonderful thing, isn't it? And having had a bit to do with Ian Darling, who did the fifth quarter, and a little bit also with the other mob that did the Australian Dream with Stan Grant. And sort of like seeing those films again and again and again, the documentaries now, two documentaries in the space of a year, on the same subject matter, about the same person, doesn't happen that often. And the reason why it happens is because it's important. So the situation that has played out, and I think again, hearing Horses, I suppose, his reflections on that moment and what it meant and where we're at now. And let's not gild the lily on this, or let's not give it something that it's not. Adam Goodes is a champion of the game. It's as simple as that. Now, if you don't, you can say one thing or the other. He's a champion of the game, and he was actually drummed out of the game, booed out of the game in terms of those things. Again, if you don't believe me, watch the two documentaries and make your own mind up in that regard. But you can't come away from that and go, he wasn't impacted. I suppose the situation that Horses is talking about there is that potentially that's what they should have done because trying to ignore it and the advice that the AFL were giving to the club and to Adam Goodes is the and Gillan McLaughlin at the time. And this is one of Gillan's, this is one of the crosses on his, on his, on his dance card. And he admits it himself, right? They should have done more, they should have done better in that regard. And they didn't because they thought if you ignore it, it will go away.
I suppose with the benefit of hindsight and understanding of where we are now and looking at that, the point, I was only talking to someone about this yesterday, the provenance of the situation that we're finding now with Stengel and Hill, the drop in numbers, all of these things that we've been talking about over the last few weeks, which is, as I said, if it's not a crisis, it's approaching it. The situation we are now facing is that potentially something like that may have actually changed things, it may have actually changed the situation. And if we look at the, over Anzac with regards to Uncle Colin Hunter, who does the welcomes, and the ways that that played out at the Dawn Service, you've got those idiots who are booing and carrying on and all the rest of it for the welcome to country at that, which is something that had been given the imprimatur by the Australian Defence Force.