You could cut the air with a knife in the room full of national sporting federation presidents, chief executive and integrity officers, police, media and sports stars.

Few have avoided some sort of integrity- or sportsmanship-related issue in recent times. 

Among many others Essendon supplements, Sandpaper-gate, Basket-brawl were each prominent, but so too were the everyday challenges faced by one Australian sporting body after the next.

The Australian Sports Commission’s CEO Kate Palmer was one of five key panellists and was first to concede the reality that federal government funding at elite level was targeted at “winning”. It neatly set the tone for the dilemmas faced throughout the night.

Interestingly Sports England’s Jenny Price agreed that the Brits too invest to win but also to inspire.

More fascinating was that only one intervention drew spontaneous and extensive applause – a call from former World Anti-Doping Agency Head, David Howman to get physical education and sport back in Australian schools.

His theory was clearly that there is no better way to develop and embed a positive culture of what’s right and wrong in sport and life than by growing it among young, enquiring minds surrounded by sound guidance and active learning.

And Howman could not have contrasted it better than when he fired a massive warning shot directly into the crowd, revealing concerns about the rapid and uncontrolled growth of e-sports – including $100,000-plus contracts for top teenage players against a background of growing interest from illegal and unregulated bookmakers.

Tennis Australia’s plain-speaking integrity boss Ann West is adamant things have to change – including very much in her own sport. As hard as it may sound she wants to see the end of a big swag of lower end tournaments on the world tennis circuit.

She says the cost of participation for the vast majority of international players is a massive issue. The situation where there are thousands of tournaments across the globe worth $15,000 is unsustainable – with even winners and runners-up struggling to break even.

And the potential to be corrupted is there for every one of those players every day.

Yet this is a sport which for the most part is actually governed by the players. With the exception of the grand slams, David and Federation Cups and the Olympics, almost every tournament is run under the auspices of the players’ associations.

It’s pretty standard fare to criticise the governors of most sports for not giving a hoot about the participants but in tennis it’s the latter who are running the show.

And what’s the result? The top echelon are massively rewarded, even obscenely so to many, the next group down comfortably so but only from time to time - while those beyond just 150 on the rankings struggle often to square the expenses ledger.

Having a good look at drawing a line on how much each group earns might alleviate a few of the concerns in the integrity department there.

Steve Hooker who was the athlete voice on stage reckons this is critical. He says the top and most experienced sportsmen and women are critical to convincing those below how to respond and behave. It is they who will shape and lead the type of culture that’s needed.

Interestingly he also drew a distinction between fully professional sportspeople and those even at the top end of Olympic-type sports.

The retired pole vault superstar says that those with contracts in high profile sports have a greater responsibility because of the privilege they’ve been given.

This debate wasn’t pursued. Perhaps others didn’t get it, but more likely they didn’t want to.