The sign "Coon Drive" had been posted in front of the club's street sign. Briggs, the Rumbalara founding president who now chairs the AFL's Indigenous Advisory Board, addressed the commission on Tuesday.

But his most challenging questions this week have come from the Rumbalara juniors wanting to know why the sign had been put there.

Just as the Sydney Swans believe Adam Goodes became the target of the most sustained and vitriolic booing campaign in the game's memory after he became the Australian of the Year, Briggs believes the timing was significant in explaining the racist sign that was placed outside his football club.

That weekend the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Equal Rights Commission had attended the local Shepparton-Kyabram game to launch "Report Racism", a Goulburn Valley Football League initiative. The link between the two seemed undeniable.

"Kids are asking me: 'Why are people saying and doing these things?'," said Briggs. "This does take part in other parts of our society everywhere. It's not just Adam, but right now we need to focus on what's happening to him. We should be setting the ground rules. There is so much more work to be done."

On the eve of round 18, with Goodes having departed Sydney for a short break from the game that  has turned on him, it cannot be said that the ground rules have been set by the game's governors. While the AFL players and most clubs have been mighty in their support for the heartbroken champion, league bosses have grappled with the issue.

AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick chose not to publicly address the issue after Tuesday's commission talks in Melbourne. Fitzpatrick does not weigh in on even the biggest issues generally but his silence this week has been deafening.

Gillon McLachlan has tiptoed around the issue of racism. On Monday he called the reason for the booing "complex". Late on Tuesday, in a carefully written statement, McLachlan said: "While I respect that people may have different views about what is happening to Adam, it is impossible to separate this issue from the issue of race." By Friday McLachlan was denying that he had said he believed there were was a strong racial element to the booing and also sidestepped the question of whether Swans fans should throw eggs at those who booed Goodes.

The impression all week is that McLachlan has led by consultation when surely the time for consultation has passed. Just because some football fans claim they have paid their money and can boo whoever they like doesn't mean the AFL should back away from taking a stand and setting a strong tone. The impression at times this week is that the league has been in fear of turning away or even upsetting its supporters.

There is no doubt McLachlan has placed Goodes' welfare as a key priority. And that the AFL clubs have been impressive in sending messages to their fans via spokesmen like Chris Scott and Damien Hardwick. And Fitzpatrick has privately voiced his support to the Swans. But this week of all weeks called for the game's leaders to adopt a national platform to at least set some parameters against the more racist talkback callers. Not to mention the rednecked commentators who have rewritten history regarding Goodes and the young girl at the MCG Collingwood game back in 2013 or claim Goodes is booed because of the way he plays.

The Swans believe that Goodes will play again and hopefully against Geelong but have left him alone this week. Chief executive Andrew Ireland now concedes the club should perhaps have taken a stronger stand despite Goodes' wishes after the Hawthorn game because subtlety has not worked.

Paul Briggs told Fairfax Media on Tuesday it would be a tragedy if he was hounded out of the game in this fashion. Goodes knocked back an invitation to address the commission, held an emotional meeting with his coach John Longmire on Tuesday morning and spent Tuesday night with his close friend Mick O'Loughlin.

On Wednesday he left town to spend some time at a familiar sanctuary where he could take stock of his life and career and where it was headed. His shattered state of mind has upset his club chiefs, with club chairman Andrew Pridham expected to deliver a strong pre-match address before the Adelaide SCG clash on Saturday.

Pridham's predecessor Richard Colless on Thursday said he felt ashamed for his game, and Ireland said: "It hurts when there's a game that you love and you see it degenerate into that ugly racist treatment." Ireland became involved in a verbal fracas with supporters hurling abuse at Goodes and Lance Franklin during Sydney's recent clash with Brisbane and believes like Pridham the booing is racially motivated.

The booing of Adam Goodes reached its crescendo last Sunday at Subiaco to the eternal shame of those West Coast fans who hounded him every time he went near the football. That evening Goodes seemed in reasonable spirits as he dined with the team, but as the night went on the demons set in.

He had chosen not to fly home on the "red-eye" with the majority of the team and had little sleep that night. Heaven knows what went through his mind as Goodes lay awake but perhaps it has been a blessing that he left Sydney and the deafening white noise that has accompanied his predicament.

The noise that has largely avoided the crux of this sorry story. Which is that Goodes is booed largely because he makes people feel uncomfortable. Because he has chosen to take a stand, Goodes seems to serve as an uncomfortable reminder of all that is bad about Australia's race relations and this country's shameful history.

This is not something Australians generally like to be reminded about.

And as much as the AFL loves to celebrate Indigenous Australians and their glorious role in the game it struggles as much as most with the great divide.