The daughter of an army colonel, she played plenty of sport as a kid and rowed "a couple of times" for New South Wales. She would have loved to play footy, "a sport with such fantastic skills where you can throw your body about so freely". Her first footy memories are watching the old VFL on a black-and-white TV with her father. She was always fascinated by the game as live theatre. "There's always a human story being played out somewhere on the field. And then there are all the stories being played out in the crowd."

Because her father was in the army, the family moved about and, for the two years he was on military service in Vietnam, they lived with her grandmother in Adelaide. While doing an arts/law degree in Canberra, she worked as a researcher for the local chief magistrate, Ron Cahill. "He had two interests – the magistracy and Collingwood," it was her introduction to "rabid fandom".

She then worked as an associate to Justice Michael Kirby in the NSW Court of Appeal before transferring to Canberra where she worked her way up to the office of Prime Minister Paul Keating, advising him on communications policy and representing him on the organising committee for the Sydney Olympics.

She was back in the Sydney corporate world when she got a phone call from a headhunter asking her to apply for the position of first woman AFL commissioner. "My first thought was 'this is ridiculous'. I mean, I love the game as a fan, but …" Her father, however, was of the view that she had been called to service.

When she was finally appointed after a series of interviews, AFL chairman Ron Evans said: "For a while just sit and listen and learn. Put to one side your desire to fight and then, when I give you the cue to speak, bring your whole self into the commission."

What she felt around the commission table was goodwill. "They were gracious, generous men." But she also encountered opinions that showed "no real understanding of people from different backgrounds than their own". Some of the club presidents didn't quite know what to do with her, sitting her in groups of women at games. But there were men in the game who were immediately open to her – Peter Jackson, Matt Finnis, Brendon Gale, Chris Langford, Bob Hammond, Rick Hanlon, Paul Briggs …

From the start, women and Indigenous people were coming to her. Among them were two legends of the women's game, Debbie Lee and Jan Cooper, who took her into the world of women's football. She travelled Australia, seeing matches, attending carnivals. When she attempted to share her enthusiasm with her fellow AFL commissioners, she was told: "Go ahead, if it's your interest, but it's not our focus. It's not great footy." By now, she had met literally hundreds of women volunteers working "so hard" for the women's game.

In 2008, she was joined on the AFL Commission by Linda Dessau, now the Governor of Victoria. In 2010, the AFL commissioned a report into women's football that led to the possibility of a national competition.

In 2013, after the first exhibition match at the MCG, she asked AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick to accompany her to the team rooms. He said, "I have no place in a women's change room." She said, "It's a football change room." They went in together. He was introduced, in part, as a former Carlton dual premiership captain. He joined the banter about injuries and moments in the match and, as they left, he said, "They're just like we used to be." It was, she believes, "the moment it clicked for him".

I saw Sam Mostyn at work close-up a couple of times. Once was when an AFL official deeply offended an Aboriginal elder and the "Dreamtime at the G" game looked to be drifting towards the rocks. She fixed that. She fixed it so well that no one saw her do it.

She says Gill McLachlan "fully engaged " with the 2015 exhibition game and unilaterally announced the 2017 women's competition. The commission backed McLachlan and, her goal achieved, her mountain climbed, Sam Mostyn resigned.

She was only 50 but she'd had 10 years on the AFL Commission; part of her belief in being a leader is that you've got to create space for the people coming up behind you. She's on the board of the Swans, which augurs good things for that club. She's also part of the GO foundation set up by Adam Goodes and Michael O'Loughlin to help Indigenous youth. She does a host of other things while also being married to Simeon and having a 17-year-old daughter.

But she rang me on Monday just to talk about the footy, as you do. Sam Mostyn believes the women's competition is vital to securing the long-term future of the game. I think she's right. We're heading into a period of political and social turbulence which will impact on everything, sport included. Because of AFLW, and the large audience it's speaking to, the game is much more deeply rooted in the place it's from.