Attending the AFL's Hall of Fame while working at the AFL was for me a highlight of the football calendar. Season Launch, marquee rounds and the Brownlows are all well and good but the Hall of Fame is where it's at.

The reason for this is because it is here the stories of the greats are told by the greats themselves. No football story is generic or formulaic. They all bring with them an understanding of the human condition and the challenges we all face as people. It is through football these stories are told.

In 2022, the Boy from Birdum, Bill Dempsey MBE was my responsibility for the night. Having played a lazy 343 games for West Perth Dempsey was set to be inducted and due to a few mobility issues I was tasked with helping him get from the table at the function to the dais and back again.

As I recall, the morning of the HoF dinner it had been reported in the press that Barry Cable, the most bemedaled Western Australian player and HoF Legend, had been found guilty, in a civil trial, of molesting a young girl in his care.

Entering the function room, it was clear no expense had been spared for this event. Massive flower arrangements stood like sentries throughout the room. A three-piece ensemble gently played on the stage, and everything seemed to shine and be in its place. I looked up and lining the upper reaches of the room the individual blue banners with the codes Legends names could be seen. Such was the speed of the news and its impact so great that the only one missing was Cable's. I paused for a moment and checked. It was gone. As the formalities got under way I do recall the Chair Richard Goyder addressed the Cable matter in his speech and was very clear about the AFL's stance at the time.

Given the lifetime it takes to create a legacy the Cable story is instructive. We have seen the annulment of Cable's post career accolades in various forms like the Western Australian football Hall of Fame and so on. His role as the coach of the Indigenous team of the Century has been erased from the AFL's digital hub.

However, to complicate matters, the famous Jamie Cooper painting of the team hangs in the reception lounge just to the right of the AFL reception at Docklands and behind a security door. In Cooper's painting we see to the right Cable and Syd Jackson embrace. But instead of what the painting is meant to convey: positivity, celebration and homage, the taint has come from what we know now - as opposed to what was then unknown.

The primary question is who makes the call on such things given the gravity of the offences? I ask this as someone who is connected to Cable's legacy, having attended a number of his football training camps as a teenager and in later life writing the book on the AFL's Indigenous Team of the Century of which Cable was the named coach.

Given the situation, what does the AFL do and who makes the decision as it relates to the principles in decision-making? One of the suggestions in the aftermath of the news was to position a plaque next to Cooper's painting disclosing the reality of Cable's actions.

The rationale by a colleague at the time was this is what the National War Memorial in Canberra was doing or had done with Ben Roberts-Smith, having been awarded a Victoria Cross for gallantry and the highest possible award he could receive. As we have seen in 2023 he was found to have committed war crimes while deployed in Afghanistan, and that as a story is still ongoing.

Is a disclaimer next to the painting something the AFL need to do or is it something that needs greater consideration? Further, once a decision is made - do the AFL need to publicly explain their position?

Given the AFL is on the cusp of commencing its season proper and the range of issues it deals with on any given day the matter of Barry Cable probably seems like small fry compared to the big-ticket items Australia's favourite code addresses. But the issue as it stands given the gravity of the matter cannot be ignored.

If the AFL have already done something as it relates to the painting, so be it. This should be followed up with a press release stating what has occurred. As it stands, I also need to take action and contact the Aboriginal Studies Press - the publishing arm of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - and address the chapter on Cable in my own book.

None of this has any element of joy or satisfaction, but what it does do is address those issues that have played out in the past and how we, if we follow football or not, handle these matters as they arise and how we acknowledge them as a society.

Dr Sean Gorman is a senior research fellow and the author of Brotherboys: The story of Jim and Phillip Krakouer (2005) and Legends: The AFL Indigenous Team of the Century (2011).