Three complete different scenarios.
Goodes was a model player who was at the top of his game, no off field issues and work rate was up there with the best of them in his sport. He deserved nothing but respect, faced unfair racism, aggressively reacted and unfortunately that was not accepted or taken well by parts of the community. He should be remembered as a great player and leader.
Buddy was the best of the best in his role on field, but also had some off field baggage and their were some serious incidents/issues that were covered up by the AFL to protect him and the game. He and his wife coped it in the media/socials when he didn't take responsibility for his actions, tied it to mental health and then called racism if anyone questioned any of his actions. He should be remembered as great player, who like many before him had some flaws off field.
Latrell has all the talent in the world, terrible work rate on the field, a history of dirty aggressive actions on the field and all on top of big list of poor off field behavior. He needs to take responsibility for his actions and not play the victim. Latrell is well on the way to ruining his reputation all on his own doing.
Good summation.
My take on Latrell - generally, fans (and other players) love players who are all effort, who clearly put their teams and mates first - they don’t have to be the best player in the world, but if they’re grafting their nuts off, then they’ll get respect - look at Jake Turbo, some people think he’s a good player, some think he’s a plodder, but he’s universally respected for effort.
Latrell picks and chooses when to put in the effort, and relies heavily on natural ability rather than hard work - that rubs people up the wrong way, straight away.
Then he’s got an ego - he knows he’s got more natural ability than most, and big notes himself at every opportunity; ‘Trell-ianz Stadium’ anybody…. He goes out of hisway to put himself front and centre as ‘the main attraction’, the man who ‘puts bums on seats’, he talks about the attention he gets being because he’s ‘the star of the show’ - so he’s putting himself on a pedestal as a character people love to hate, particularly opposition fans, and particularly Rooster fans given his history.
Then throw in some of his poor actions/behaviour, it’s easy to see why he gets grief, and the colour of his skin has nothing to do with it.
Overall, he comes across as a supremely gifted, but lazy, arrogant arsehole. That’s why he gets booed.
