Having started his recovery from racial vilification at the hands of a young girl last Friday night, Goodes was then back in another hailstorm of controversy on Wednesday over Eddie McGuire's horribly misplaced commentary.
Goodes trained as per normal at the SCG on Thursday morning, sharing a laugh with teammates Lewis Jetta, Nick Malceski and Nick Smith while he did stretches some distance from the enormous media scrum.
He then had the usual strut in his step as he took part in drills before media were turned away from the closed session.
Coach John Longmire wholly expects Goodes to take his place in the line-up on Saturday afternoon and said any other decision will be the 33-year-old's alone.
"Yes I am," Longmire said when asked if he was confident Goodes would be in the right frame of mind to take on the Bombers.
"He just wants to come along today and enjoy training with his teammates.
“Probably the thing he's looking forward to the most is getting out on the ground and having a run around and getting a kick and doing what he has done so well for so long.
"He's experienced enough to know how he's going physically and mentally.
"The discussion I had with him this morning was purely about training today and that's what he's looking forward to.
"His immediate focus is just on training and running around on the SCG, which he loves to do."
Late on Wednesday, McGuire conceded he had racially vilified Goodes and offered to step down as Collingwood president while an AFL investigation gets underway.
Longmire was asked if he felt further action should be taken.
"I don't have a view on that. My view is to support Adam and to prepare our team to play Essendon," he said.
"What happens outside of that is beyond my control. That will be looked at by other people.
"All we're concerned about is obviously Adam has had a challenging week, we'll support him and make sure we'll manage the expectation to come up against a really competitive Essendon side.
"We'll let the community discuss the issues which have been brought up over the last week, which is ultimately not a bad thing when you look at it in the context of general society."
Longmire felt the most important development yesterday was that Goodes and McGuire spoke on the phone and the Swans champion accepted McGuire's apology.
The premiership coach also said that he and his assistants had prepared as normal to take on the Bombers, who are sitting two places and two points higher than the fifth-placed Swans.
"We've been looking at Essendon all week as coaches," he said.
"The players had a day off yesterday, they come in today and we had a meeting this morning talking about Essendon.
"From that point, nothing much changes in regards to preparing for Saturday's game."
James Dampney is a reporter for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_JD
