RACISM almost forced Robinvale football prodigy Phil Egan to turn his back on a promising Victorian Football League career, in which he played 125 games over nine seasons at Richmond Football Club.

The gifted Egan also kicked 117 goals during his career, including successive bags of seven goals from full forward against Melbourne and North Melbourne in 1988.

But it would never have happened, if not for another equally talented indigenous player as well as a young club leader who showed maturity beyond his years.

At 17 years of age in 1980, the gifted Egan was recruited to play six games on permit for Richmond's reserves while he was studying at Assumption College in Kilmore, but his first match was almost the start of the end.

Having been collected on the day by gun recruiter Noel Judkins, Egan was then introduced to the playing group for the first time before the game against St Kilda at Moorabbin.

Pleasantries were exchanged before the teenager came before a flamboyant future VFL player.

"His response was, 'Hey flagons -- we gonna go under the bridge after the game, hey flagons'," Egan said.

"Unfortunately, that nickname hung around during the six games and I was devastated ... I hated it," he said.

When Egan was recruited by the club during the off-season, he thought little of the previous season's jibe at his indigenous heritage, but his hopes of a fresh start were short-lived.

"When I eventually went down the next year as a recruited player some of the senior players would call me that as well," he said.

"Senior players were calling me flagons during practice drills and I wouldn't put up with it.

"I objected and said to them, 'You can't say that, you're as bad as the next one'."

Even before the first game had been played in the 1981 season, Egan was questioning his future at Punt Road.

At one pre-season training session, Egan became visibly upset at the nickname and the club's under-19 captain and that season's age group best and fairest Adam Pearson saw his distress.

"Adam pulled the whole club in during a pre-season practice session at Punt Road, including all the senior players and coaches," he said.

"Maurice (Rioli) took me away and then he went back to the group and that was the last time I was called flagons.

"It took an 18-year-old to have the strength to stand up and pull all the senior players in, including coaches, and address it because he could see I was visibly upset.

"If it didn't stop I wouldn't have played one game -- I wouldn't have gone back to training if it wasn't for Maurice Rioli, but Adam Pearson started it -- he took a stand and that was fantastic."

Egan said he was not surprised by a recent report leaked to the media that identified long-standing, deep-seated racism at Collingwood Football Club, long after Pearson and the Richmond Football Club put an end to any form of racism at Punt Road.

"Collingwood have just shown what the shortcomings are if things aren't addressed seriously and they haven't been.

"Thankfully, things have changed because racism in any form -- if it stops one kid from progressing in their sporting career or education -- then it has got to be outlawed and it has stopped a lot of people.

"The racism that has been found to exist at Collingwood exists at many clubs at various levels and they deal with it in different ways.

"When it does pop up, most clubs knock it on the head and that is a systematic approach that has to be taken by all clubs such as what Richmond has done with their community and humanitarian efforts over the past five years -- it has turned the club on its head and the results are right there.

"Richmond, as well as other successful clubs, have shown that you haven't got a bloody choice -- you must stand up for what the community's values are."

Egan said racism during his playing days was "rampant".

"Black fellas like me and many others will tell you that you only have to walk in our shoes for a couple of hours," he said.

"You'll be in a club or an organisation that doesn't take it seriously and you'll know very quickly that it's a sad, sad world for people of colour or people of different cultures.

"It's really, really sad that we have to have that thick skin ... we always seem to be the ones who have to go more than half way -- we have to keep giving and giving, and we do.

"But we can't hide in the closet; we have got to survive and get on with our lives and just hope that your kids have a better opportunity than what we've had."

Egan said it was now "quite comforting" being able to attend football matches and "to see sport just for what it is".

"We can be safe to send our kids and grandkids into sport and feel that they are going to be protected from racism and be confident about that.

"The odd jibe here and there I don't think will ever leave us, but the strength of our convictions and family will make sure that that doesn't have a major effect as long as it is treated in unison by the club or by the individuals who hear it.

"If there's support there, then young Aboriginal people can get on with it.

"It's hard enough just to function and to aspire and to get there and any racism on top of it just does not help, but it's certainly a different world from the 1980s when I was starting out.

"We've got a little bit to go, but hopefully it's going to get there."

Egan said while social media and the "cowardly, anonymous keyboard warriors" remained a problem, headway was being made.

"The progress in my time involved in sport and being able to go to the footy now, you very rarely hear it, which is fantastic.

"Those times are few and far between so there has been immense progress.

"I think we're staring at the extremities of it, but the subtleness of racial differences and the way people portray their own values and their own culture, whether they are black, white or brindle, is going to be an issue for humanity for a while."