Geelong star and AFL Players' Association president Patrick Dangerfield says the game failed Adam Goodes and wishes he'd better handled the ugly booing saga.
Dangerfield made the comments on Monday in the wake of Goodes' film, The Final Quarter, which was released last week.
The documentary depicts the racism Goodes copped in his final AFL seasons. The Sydney Swans icon was booed relentlessly at games around Australia before he retired in 2015.
The AFL issued an apology last week and Dangerfield admits he was naive of the booing's affect at the time.
"I think we as a competition and as an industry really failed Adam," Dangerfield said on Talking Footy.
"Probably at the time I was just naive to it as a lot of us were, you certainly look back and reflect and go 'How did none of us stand up and really put this on the agenda'.
"I don't think anyone did go as hard as what we should have and really stand up. We condemned it at the time as the Players' Association, but if we had our time again would we have gone 10 times harder? Absolutely we would have.
"But I think the whole industry would have, we would have pulled each other up and said this is not on."
Dangerfield emphasised the Goodes situation was very different to his teammate Gary Ablett getting booed in the Cats victory against Richmond on Friday.
"It was comical out there to be honest because we just know how good Garry is, it was super loud but by the end he's had 24 (touches) and kicked two (goals) and dominated the game," Dangerfield said.
"The Adam Goodes situation is far different to what Garry has been through the last couple of weeks.
"If someone gets clipped head high and the crowd is into it I think that's part and parcel of the game."
