One of the biggest ways the North Melbourne Football Club has changed in recent years has been the inception of its women's football program.

The AFLW side has performed strongly since its introduction into the competition in 2019 with the likes of established stars Emma Kearney and Jas Garner leading the way since day one, while the club's VFLW program completed its first campaign last year and pulled off a strong win against Darebin on Saturday.

Like many others, North Melbourne president Dr Sonja Hood has only discovered her passion for women's football in recent years, largely thanks to the relationships formed in the early days of the Kangaroos' attempts to earn an AFLW side.

"I didn't know I was going to become passionate about women's footy, I didn't know much about women's footy. I had met some great women through women's footy and I remember when the women from the Melbourne Uni women's footy team first came and spoke to us about training on this oval," Hood said on the Happy Dais podcast.

"Lots of people asked for time on this oval but the 'Mugars' were the first group who ever turned up and offered us something in return. What they said was they'd help us in The Huddle and they'd help us run Auskick if they could train.

"I met some amazing women through that process and through that team. My daughter played for 'Mugars' in one of the junior teams and I loved the ethos and inclusivity of it."

While female representation on the football field has seen massive increases since the AFLW first came into existence, female representation behind the scenes at the highest level is still playing catch-up.

Hood says it's a problem not just within the AFL, but in the wider elite sporting community.

"I think across all the football codes there's one female CEO, Caroline Carnegie at Melbourne Victory. [She's] a big North supporter and an incredible woman, but there's nobody else," Hood said.

"There's the old adage of 'you can't be what you can't see'. There needs to be female footballers, female CEOs, female presidents, so [girls] can see that's possible for them.

"We've got a bit of work to do but there are a whole heap of other diversity pieces we really need to start and pick off … if you're closing out, let's just start with women, you're closing your talent pool to half or less of what it could be and it's nonsense."