"There was this big guy on a surfboard," said the former Australian surf lifesaver of the year of one of her many rescues.

"When I got him back to the beach his mates were hanging around. He was clearly embarrassed and they were giving him a hard time.

"So he patted me on the head and said, 'Nice hat'.

"I wanted to deck him. I was so cranky but you can't, that's what you're there to do. People are embarrassed they've needed help, especially a young man with his mates."

In her latest role, as the NRL's chief operating officer, Young is again responsible for, among other things, the welfare of young men acting irresponsibly. Part of her remit is the NRL's much-maligned integrity unit, charged with the sanctioning of men who have also run into trouble on the drink. While the scrutiny on the 46-year-old is intense, her previous experiences, particularly those as a lifesaver, put things into perspective.

"Probably the toughest one was doing resuscitation on the father of a girl I knew at the surf club," she said of another dramatic day on the beach.

"Her dad was in one of the surf races on a Sunday morning, came out and we did rescues. We thought we had saved him because he was pink; he was clearly getting enough oxygen to his body. But we later found out he had a massive heart attack and it wasn't going to be recoverable.

"Another time we rescued one man at North Bondi who had clearly had too much to drink. That was one of my worst experiences, because he vomited and that's not nice."

She will not enjoy reading the next sentence. Young is the most powerful woman in rugby league.

That gender has been such a part of the narrative since her appointment – "mother of six" was a more common descriptor in headlines than her accomplishments at Leighton Holdings, the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas or on the water – is something she has addressed often during numerous speaking engagements for Women in League round.

"I'll be happy, I'll know we got there, when the appointment of a senior woman isn't a surprise," she said.

"It isn't seen as unusual and they don't go immediately to, 'Wow, she's got six kids!'

"Whilst I love my children and step-children dearly and I'm proud to be a parent, I bring a wealth of experience and passion to the game that I'd hope would be valued. I don't want to be seen as unique because I'm female and a mother.

"I'd like to think we get to a point in society where that is not the headline. I had someone tweet to me 'Who did you sleep with to get the job?'.

"I don't get bent out of shape by that, it's just one person who is silly. That's not the majority of my experience since starting in the role."

Wests Tigers chair Marina Go last week called for female director quotas to be introduced to ensure there is a diversity of ideas in the corridors of power. Young agrees and believes that, having experienced the challenge of being the sole female voice on boards, there should be a mandate for a minimum of two.

"My fear is if we don't have a target or quota as such, it might take another 100 years to get there," she said.

"Certainly over time I have experienced some poor behaviour, which has potentially related to gender over my 25-year career.

"If you talk about specific behaviours, absolutely I've had some people say some appalling things that I would never want said to a female coming through just because she's a female.

"I'm now nearly 47 years of age, I'm more self-confident and able to stand up for myself and say 'No, you can't say that. That is not the way to behave.'

"You get that with age; I may not have been able to do that when I was 23."

Young has been derided by some as a "captain of industry" with no experience in rugby league. That is not completely true.

"I've got a very flat nose on one side," she said, the result of a rugby league collision during a schoolyard game in the Riverina.

There have been other battle scars. A couple of years ago she walked into work with a black eye, raising the eyebrows of colleagues. It was the result of the sort of risk-taking behaviour that would cause headlines if she were playing, rather than running, the game. Sailing on a catamaran with her brothers in Galiwinku off Elcho Island, the lure of the water again became too enticing.

"They said, 'you can go for a swim off the back of the boat, but if you hear anything in the water, get out because it could be a shark or a crocodile'," she said.

"It was really hot and because I love the water I decided to go in anyway.

"I heard something splash in the water behind me and as I came up the stairs and hit my head on the steel plate at the top. The next morning I woke up and looked like I'd been punched.

"I wouldn't want to live a life without risk taking, it would be so boring."

There is nothing boring about the antics of the players. They too, take liberties off the field but face the wrath of Young's integrity unit when things go awry. Whatever the sanctions, few are satisfied.

The NRL suffered a black eye of its own when Fairfax Media, doing the sort of investigative work that should have been done by the integrity unit, revealed what really happened during South Sydney's infamous training camp in Arizona. But the biggest bugbear for clubs is a perceived inconsistency in punishments, particularly in off-field matters.

"We look at the severity and precedents, but it's a case-by-case basis," Young said.

"You try and be as consistent as you can be, but the off-field stuff is a little harder because you don't usually have 12 different views of footage of the incident.

"Sometimes you do have footage, if not 12 angles of it, and then you have to do an investigation and get the facts.

"We work with the clubs to do that and sometimes that is its own challenge. But we're dealing with specific and individual incidents which are broad in range.

"It's important we make sure there is an awareness over what is the right thing to do and penalise them as consistently as we can given the information we have. Then we support their rehabilitation.

"That way we can keep them involved in the game and supported to get back on the right track.

"Kids make mistakes, I know I did. You want them to learn things through experience and watching others."