That it took an intra-show scandal which rocked the boys' club to finally install a woman onto The Footy Show would not be lost on Rebecca Maddern, even though she would never publicly say so.

And yet the circumstances surrounding her appointment, which on the face of it looks to be a smart if long overdue move by Channel Nine, can be historically referenced when it comes to women and the AFL.

Despite the fact that Australian rules has always had strong female ties far stronger than any other football code, too often the competition has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into a position which it should have calmly embraced years earlier.

The AFL itself has cringed at times over The Footy Show but the competition's governing body took until 2005 — eight years after its stated intention — to appoint its first woman commissioner, Sam Mostyn.

And then it was forced to extend its board numbers because no male director would stand aside to make way for progress, provoking outrage and accusations of tokenism in some key areas.

The game's first woman club president, Peggy O'Neal, ascended at Richmond at the end of 2013 following an internal power struggle between two male aspirants.

St Kilda had the good sense to appoint Peta Searle as the game's first woman assistant coach only after an Age front page story revealed financial constraints balanced with the demands of single parenting had forced the promising mentor out of VFL coaching ranks. Then the AFL intervened demonstrating yet again how affirmative action is sometimes the only way.

And when Kelli Underwood broke one of the game's toughest barriers by calling AFL game's on Channel Ten, that network ultimately succumbed to loud, negative and Neanderthal feedback despite the fact the fledgling caller outperformed some of her Ten stablemates.

Underwood, though, has continued to break through, calling football on the ABC, winning a multitude of awards and becoming a strong presence on a multitude of networks including Fox Sports and the ABC. Just as O'Neal has presided over more than two years of stability and off-field growth at Tigerland, winning strong support and respect from AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and down the line.

Searle is no longer the only woman assistant coach in the AFL and Mostyn recently stepped down after 11 years on the commission where she persistently challenged the competition on cultural failings, became a champion for indigenous Australians and was an early pioneer for the soon-to-be-formed national women's league.

Surely, too, after the cultural shock value has died down, it will be the same for Maddern, who has worked with most of the individuals on the team she now joins, shares Craig Kelly as a manager with both Garry Lyon and Billy Brownless, and who will receive strong support from network boss Tim Cleary, who is a close friend.

Maddern, who filled in for AFL panel, commentary and reporting roles on Channel Seven last year with a warm professionalism, came out of contract last Thursday. Conveniently, according to Nine, she was approached for the first time officially about her new role on Good Friday.

It is true that, after the Lyon-Brownless fall-out, Nine did not immediately look forward but instead back when it attempted to woo back the show's founder Eddie McGuire. Contractually barred by Fox Sports, McGuire's return could have led to the departure of co-host James Brayshaw and would certainly have proved a stumbling block for Lyon's return next year.

But there seems no reason why Brayshaw should not work well with his new sidekick nor should there be any issues going forward should Lyon return next year, although Nine could not guarantee she would remain in a hosting role and Maddern herself agreed that nothing is "100 percent guaranteed in this business". She added: "I knew it would be big because it's such an historic move and I was steeling myself for negative reaction from The Footy Show purists, but overall the response has been very encouraging". And for those who haven't? "I hope to give them every opportunity to change their mind."

Maddern worked with Sam Newman as a 24-year-old delivering sports news reports on Triple M. "Hopefully I'm more mature and wiser than I was then," she said, "with a few more runs on the board.

"Most of the stuff he does is funny and light. He's overstepped the mark at times and specific occasions come to mind. But Sam is Sam and I'm not there to change Sam. He's a 70-year-old man." That assessment could be widened to include a mentality which has for too long stood in the way of women breaking into key positions of influence in a game they embraced from the outset.

Network bosses may insist they went for the best person and not a woman when they knew they required a Footy Show co-host. And it may have taken a betrayal and some heartbreak to force change, but now that it has happened, it's a situation worth embracing.