As the 30th anniversary of arguably the most famous public stand against racism in Australian football approached, a string of incidents involving the racist abuse of Indigenous AFL players set alarm bells ringing.

April 17 this year marked three decades since Nicky Winmar's defiant stance against bigots in the crowd at Victoria Park.

The following night hundreds convened at the very same ground at which he turned to the crowd, lifted his St Kilda jumper and said "I'm black and I'm proud" in response to the racist abuse he and team mate Gilbert McAdam endured through the game, to acknowledge the pain caused and legacy the moment left.

Days earlier Collingwood formally apologised to Winmar and McAdam when the two sides met in Adelaide.

The Magpies also condemned the "appalling" comments made by then-president Allan McAllister following the incident, who said Aboriginal players should "conduct themselves like white people".

A fortnight earlier young Bulldog Jamarra Ugle-Hagan recreated Winmar's stance in response to vilification he had received from the stands the week prior.

While the community rallied around the 20-year-old following the abuse, the incident would prove to be the first of several incidents in weeks to come.

Leading up to round five, multiple clubs and the AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan released statements after Adelaide's Izak Rankine, Brisbane's Charlie Cameron and Fremantle duo Michael Walters and Nathan Wilson were subjected to abuse online.

The AFL integrity unit launched investigations into the incidents, alongside Ugle-Hagan's.

"It has got no place in our game, it has got no place in our community - it's frankly just a disgrace, it's abhorrent," McLachlan said on April 12.

"It causes so much hurt to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, frankly I think it offends 99.99 per cent of all football followers.

"We are taking the action we can. We work hard to track them down but we know they disappear."

Fremantle chief executive Simon Garlick called online attacks of players "cowardly" and "pathetic".

Also marring the current season, Geelong have been placed at the centre of legal proceedings surrounding historic allegations of the sexual abuse of an Indigenous former player in the 1980s, and the results of investigations into allegations of serious misconduct directed towards Hawthorn players during the club's most recent premiership are yet to be released.

First Nations woman and AFL general manager of inclusion and social policy Tanya Hosch said online attacks are difficult to police.

The anonymity of being an individual within a crowd of thousands, and more acutely, faceless social media accounts, allows for perpetrators to go unpunished.

Ms Hosch told National Indigenous Times individuals who are members of an AFL club, and have been confirmed as responsible for the abuse, will have their membership suspended.

She said stricter legal implications are out of the league's jurisdiction unless the victim goes on to make a police report and their claims can be substantiated.

More robust responses, such as life bans, are not "off the table completely".

"What we think about is… our opportunity to try and influence people's level of education and understanding, and do we really think that it is possible for people to change their racist views, or not," Hosch said.

"And certainly, I think there would be circumstances, depending on the kind of offence it was, because they definitely can range in severity. If you find someone I wouldn't say that that would be off the table completely."

Ms Hosch reiterated that the AFL has strong relationships with social media companies and the eSafety Commissioner to address the concerns.

She said two meetings with the Commission office and conversations with Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, had occurred in the week following the latest string of online attacks.

Ms Hosch warned that the Voice referendum campaigns could see racist abusive behaviour on the rise.

"This is just my opinion…but in my lived experience…when issues concerning Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people are regularly part of the public discourse, we tend to see an increase in racism," she told National Indigenous Times.

"It's something that I've seen live out."

Ms Hosch said clubs are made aware of the potential situation and that training is provided "to try and give people their best opportunity for self-defence", including on social media.

Former AFL head of Indigenous and multicultural affairs Jason Mifsud said the handling of racism from elite level to grassroots remains a "bugbear" of his.

He told National Indigenous Times that the league, who oversees almost all football across the country, are guilty of "passing the buck… to people at a very local and community level who, quite frankly, wouldn't have the attitude level, let alone the skills to be dealing with incidents of that nature".

"As the keeper of the code, the AFL does have an obligation and a responsibility to role model at the elite level for all other levels," Mifsud said.

"(In) everything below the AFL competition…the response to local incidents of racial vilification and allegations and reports has been completely unacceptable. (The AFL) needs to absolutely be a lot stronger and absolutely a lot clearer around the consequences of racism at community level."

The league has responded to 23 reports of racist abuse towards players across the AFL, VFL and Talent League this season.

Conscious not to discredit the ongoing pain caused to current players, Mifsud said the "scale and magnitude" of racist incidents has significantly decreased from previous decades.

Ms Hosch said the league does place attention on the environment at all levels, and that a module for dealing with all types of vilification has been added to community coaching accreditation in 2023.

At Nicky Winmar's healing ceremony, Gilbert McAdam told National Indigenous Times he's "not happy" with McLachlan and the league who he said "don't say enough and they don't do enough for our Mob".

Brazilian-born former Collingwood and Melbourne defender Héritier Lumumba said the AFL has worked for years on addressing the ongoing impacts colonialism present in the game.

Lumumba has been vocal critic of Collingwood management and his experiences in the game. He was central to scrutiny placed on the culture within the Magpies setup in recent years which ultimately sparked their 2020 "Do Better" report.

On April 19, Hawthorn player and Yorta Yorta man Jarman Impey told Fox Sports while he was glad to see the players involved in the online attacks "stood up and performed" on the field, that it's frustrating Indigenous players are left to have to show resilience.

Impey said racial abuse has been something he's dealt with through his career.

Ms Hosch said "there's no finish line" to combating racism in the game.

"We're a long way from doing everything we can do. But we're trying to build the building blocks in the right way in the right order," she said.