Her curriculum vitae reads as long as Lance Franklin’s goal tally and is as extensive as Adam Goodes’ honour roll but one gets the sense that if Sam Mostyn was to, for whatever reason, vanish from AFL circles tomorrow she’d love to be remembered for her boundless love for Australian Rules more than anything else.

Because, after all, it was her love for the game that opened the door for her to be both a supporter, waving her scarf and donning her colours with the best of them, and as a trail blazer in the push for equality.

Thankfully, as far as the Sydney Swans are concerned, she’s not going anywhere any time soon having been appointed to the Swans’ Board of Directors, following Alexandra Goodfellow and Lynn Ralph in becoming the Club’s third ever female director at February’s Annual General Meeting.

Mostyn, awarded AFL Life Membership last month, is loving the fact she’s now back immersed in football. Shortly after she retired from her post at the AFL, as the organisation’s first female commissioner in 2015, Mostyn missed the 'day to days' which came with the territory.

Her happy place is at the football, so when the offer came from Sydney Swans CEO Andrew Ireland to join clubland, she didn’t think twice.

“I did have a deep sense of sadness about leaving the game,” Mostyn said from her Sydney home.

“I’m always never happier than when I’m at the footy, any footy game, being part of the crowd and enjoying the spectacle.”

“Having this opportunity to work with Andrew and the Board, and be involved in the continuing success and development of the Swans, means I can spend time again inside footy. I feel honoured to be working with such a wonderful club, and a club my family supports deeply.”

Laughing: “I’m a mad footy fan, to be honest, and I’ve grown even more passionate as I’ve got older.”

Mostyn’s chuckle was likely the result of her recalling the early days, when the fire ignited, back to the ‘70s watching the team her father barracked for (St Kilda) on the TV.

It is a fond memory, one she’ll always treasure, one that probably set the wheels in motion for a career within the sport. Not even Mr. Mostyn could have predicted just how much of an impact his daughter was going to have.

The AFL world saw first-hand Mostyn put her business-savvy and extensive experience in advisory roles to great use during 10 fruitful years with the AFL, qualities she’s continuing to develop in her positions on numerous other boards including the GO Foundation and as deputy chair of Diversity Council Australia.

Just by entering the male-dominated board room on her first day as AFL commissioner in 2005, the conversation around equality and diversity hastened.

Two years after Linda Dessau joined her on the board, the AFL launched a study into whether a women’s competition could stand on its own two feet. That study is the blueprint of the competition we know today, a competition which in its inaugural year is standing tall. The AFL has Mostyn, among other influential women, to thank for that.

It was also during this period when Mostyn realised sport’s natural influence over the Australian population.

“There’s so much to love about footy – the theatre, the fans, what it does for the community,” she said.

“You can deal with so many issues through sport that is almost impossible to deal with at a political or business level. The conversations we’ve had through sport in recent years around racism, around the Recognise campaign, around the treatment of women, around drugs and alcohol abuse.

“There is a power around sport, and a particular power that Aussie Rules brings, where you can discuss and have debates about these things and have good outcomes which are often not available to us through the mechanisms of government and policies.”

Off-field progress is just as important to Mostyn as on-field progress when it comes to diversity and equality within Australian Rules.

She is proud of what the Sydney Swans have been doing in that space such as evening out the ratio of men to women in the workplace and by launching a Diversity Action Plan (DAP) – which she’s spearheading – to address a number of key pillars including gender equality, pride, multicultural diversity and the empowerment of people with disabilities.

Seeing more employment opportunities and pathways open for, not only women, but for people from all walks of life is close to Mostyn's heart, as is continuing to work closely with Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people and the LGBIT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Intersex, Transgender) community.

On top of these efforts, she knows there’s still more work to be done to “forge new paths”.

“The Swans would be even further up the chain, in terms of respect around the culture the organisation has, if the things they’re known for today are translated into other forms of real diversity and inclusion," she said.

“This includes creating an environment where there are opportunities for women, people from different cultural backgrounds, people of any age groups, people who think a little differently and come from a different perspective and for anyone with any form of disability.

“The Club already has a great reputation but I’d love for us to continue to forge new paths as a football club into areas where perhaps things have been assumed but now need to be stated.”

Helping to increase those opportunities at the Sydney Swans is a big part of her desire to, when the time comes, leave the organisation in an even stronger position than today.

“When you join a board and governance team, you always go in aiming to leave it in a better shape than when you came in,” she added. “You are nothing more than a steward of the Club for that period so you have to work hard with colleagues around the table to make sure that everything you're doing is creating legacy and to make, in our case, the Swans stronger and better.”

Part of that is to acquire a licence in the AFLW. The Sydney Swans are not part of the women’s competition, not yet anyway, which suprisingly sits well with Mostyn.

Then again, she’s a big believer in having a strong foundation first before building something great.

“I think the Swans made a sensible and wise decision to not have a team in this first stage of the women’s league,” she said.

“What the AFL needs and these girls need is for clubs to have facilities and the capacity to ensure they have the best possible chances of being successful and to have the career the men have had. In Sydney, the Swans’ facilities are barely at the standard the men need. Because of other sports, accommodation is made at the SCG and we already make compromises for our senior men.

“When the moment comes where the right infrastructure is in place, it’ll be the most natural thing for the Sydney Swans to seek a licence. I have great confidence in the Club to make the right decision about this because when it does it’ll mean the Club absolutely believes it can throw all necessary resources behind the women.”

And when that time comes, Mostyn will be waving her flag and donning her colours with the best of them.

“Trust me, I’ll be cheering the loudest when there is a red and white women’s side to run out there," she said.