MELBOURNE president Kate Roffey says the opportunity to share experiences by having men's and women's football programs under the one club has been an unexpected bonus.

Roffey was speaking to AFL head of women's football Nicole Livingstone in the launch episode of new podcast League Leaders, which shares the journeys of women in the industry.

"It's about the cultural benefit. The men's league is a professional league, and the women's isn't (yet)," Roffey said.

"We've got Shelley Scott who drives a couple of hours each way to training, and when the men have the opportunity to interact with the women, they understand a lot more about the value of using your athlete career as a career.

"The women benefit enormously from the fact there's some highly, highly skilled men – not just in a footy sense, but in a leadership sense, on and off the field – that they can lean into as well. I think for any club, there's only going to be massive upsides of having your men's and women's programs (together), your junior development programs, whether it's AFL or further down.

"It's bringing people who have had different experiences together, it's shared knowledge. So, sharing those experiences is incredibly valuable to me, to the men and women at our club, and for our coaches."

EPISODE GUIDE

2.30 – Kate’s early career as a sports scientist at the Australian Institute of Sport.

12.57 – Career by chaos: following your gut and not being able to change direction in your career.

15.45 – Kate’s appointment as the first female President of the Melbourne Football Club.

21.30 – Melbourne's cultural reestablishment and its journey to the Grand Final.

26.15 – The establishment of Melbourne's AFLW team.

33.30 – Taking on leadership roles.

36.11 – Learning from mistakes during your career.