Hawthorn VFLW Coach Bec Goddard says the club's decision to appoint an all-female coaching group in 2021 is something bigger than football.
The Hawks announced the new plans on Wednesday, prompting a groundswell of support from the wider football community.
A premiership coach with the Adelaide Crows AFLW side in 2017, Goddard says she hopes this is seen as another element to the legacy she helps to leave in women's football.
"I've been thinking a lot during COVID about one day when they put me in the ground, how will I be remembered in footy and what contribution did I make?" Goddard told The Ticket on Wednesday.
"I really wanted it to be more than just the 14 games of AFLW that I coached, I really wanted to be able to start to open doors for women coming through and to have a powerful football club like Hawthorn back this, and actually have this initiative, to be brave, and have such overt leadership, I think it's really, really important."
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Goddard says the move will ideally create greater opportunities for women in the coaching space across the country.
"All of the women's coaching staff had their contracts terminated, there was no competition, so we couldn't stay on staff and during that time I was able to start having conversations with the CEO Justin Reeves about what the future of football looks like at Hawthorn," she said.
"It became really clear that women were a really big piece of that and not just in the playing role — if you want to be the CEO, you can be the CEO, you want to be the head of comms, you can be the head of comms, you want to be a coach then we've got those leadership positions available to you."
