FORGET Jane Woodlands-Thompson's impeccable resume, just for a moment.

Long before her dual championship-winning netball coaching feats at Adelaide Thunderbirds, Collingwood's new women's sport boss was just a little girl who kicked the footy with her brother.

That's where her crusade for female athletes truly began.

"Football was my favourite sport and I played for my local primary school and was the only girl in our team – and I think the only girl in the competition," Woodlands-Thompson told AFL.com.au.

"I used to play with my brother in the front yard and just thought it was normal to play footy and I loved it, then I went to high school and there was no pathway.

"I ended up in netball and I guess that worked out pretty well for me, but my passion for footy was always there and I had this little thing in me that it wasn't fair girls weren't able to play."

Woodlands-Thompson is now in charge of the direction and structure of the Magpies' AFL Women's and Super Netball teams, in what may become a trailblazing position.

She is a sporting treasure in her home state of South Australia and respected so much she helped appoint inaugural Adelaide coach Bec Goddard and her successor, Matthew Clarke.

Woodlands-Thompson resigned after a nine-year stint as Thunderbirds coach and Netball SA's general manager of high performance at the end of 2016, before returning at the start of last year as Dan Ryan's assistant.

She spent the past two years back at Westminster School – where her husband, Adam, is the strength and conditioning coach and their two children, Alex, 21, and Seb, 18, attended – as its head of sport development and high performance.

Her football connection also extended to being on the SANFL Commission.

All the while, Woodlands-Thompson was open to the right opportunity to move back into elite sport.

Collingwood's search for a general manager of women's sport, who would oversee the club's football and netball programs, was exactly that.

"I cursed (my dual netball role) a lot at the time – bringing up a young family and having such a big job – but I'm so grateful for what it taught me," she said.

"Coaching is not a job you take for job security, particularly in women's sport, but in any sport, really.

"The fact I had those administrative and management skills I learned along the way, put me in great shape for when this dream job came up.

"Collingwood is the most iconic club, as I saw it, to be working at and the fact a club like Collingwood would take on both sports … I had to re-read the job description and ask, 'Is this even real?'."

Winning and accepting the Magpies post, which Woodlands-Thompson said was basically unlike any other in Australian women's sport, has not been without its challenges.

She lives in separate states to her husband – they see each other most weekends – and the hours are long, although that's just how this dedicated sporting mind likes it.

There is also the understanding Woodlands-Thompson and Collingwood are entering new territory, and they know rivals are analysing them.

"We're a little bit like a social experiment, aren't we? We are being watched … this model is being watched," she said.

"If this position's been created and all of a sudden we go really well or it doesn't make any difference or if we get worse, then some judgments will be made.

"Collingwood is ahead of its time, in terms of going back to that iconic netball-footy club partnership and bringing it to the professional level."

The Pies' female footballers, such as Sarah D'Arcy and Darcy Guttridge, are already speaking glowingly of Woodlands-Thompson's early impact since starting last October.

Gone is the reliance on many people to complete many jobs. Instead, they are utilising fewer staff with strong skillsets capable of filling multiple roles.

The plan is for greater synergy across Collingwood's AFLW and Super Netball sides, as well as between the AFLW and VFLW programs.

There is now a shortlist of experts players go to for any specific question or issue: senior coach Wayne Siekman, physical performance manager Chris Howley, leadership and culture manager Nick Maxwell and women's football operations manager Tess McManus.

The Magpies won't simply be recreating their AFL program, either, acutely aware not everything that works for one gender fits the other.

Another less-obvious matter is also high on Woodlands' Thompson's agenda.

"We've done a lot of work with both programs on perspective," she said.

"We're the new kids on the block and we need to understand we're one of seven teams and we're not the most popular or successful team in that.

"So, how do we find our place in the club and value-add to the organisation, rather than be something that has to be looked after?"