DEBBIE Lee is lauded as being a true pioneer of women's football. 

She's a trailblazer in every sense of the word, helping grow the game to where it is today and being one of the key pillars in seeing the AFLW competition being launched.

But for Lee, the tags of 'trailblazer' and 'pioneer' are an "uncomfortable fit." Instead, she says it's the women who came before her she has to thank.

"I was fortunate enough to springboard off what I saw as trailblazers in my time in footy," Lee told The Inside Game in September.

"If I look back in 1981 when we first started the competition, I talk about trailblazers as those women. I was just fortunate enough to build on the great work that they had done before me.

"You talk about the early '80s when those women were up against it, when no one was interested in women's football and they formed the league with four teams. I was fortunate enough just to continue that journey and take that next step, the next iteration of women's football.

"We all have a turn, we all have an opportunity to help grow the game and I've been fortunate enough to have that opportunity presented to me."

While women's footy is revered and celebrated today, Lee said it hasn't always been that way.

Far from it, in fact.

In her early playing days, Lee recalls being ridiculed and abused just for having a kick of the footy.

"You'd step onto that oval and you didn't know what you were going to get on that Sunday afternoon," Lee said.

"I recall in my very first match as a 19-year-old, I invited all these women down to play at Sunshine YCW and we wore t-shirts, sticky tape numbers and bike pants, that was our first ever football experience.

HISTORY MAKING Lee becomes historic inductee in AFL Hall of Fame

"The boys decided to come down and support us and they hired a spa and were drinking copious amounts of alcohol and as a result, after half time it was just abuse, ridicule and laughter.

"A lot of the time people would come and watch us for a laugh, it wasn't for entertainment or support, it was 'let's go down and watch the girls for a laugh'. 

"Often women didn't even let others know they were playing the game because of that ridicule and sexism.

"When we were in the football community itself we were included, it probably galvanised not only our own club but the league because we knew outside that there was harassment, there was homophobia there was sexism and discrimination, so we had to stick together. It was almost like we were building the village and the village eventually built to where the game has landed now.

"There were lots of challenges but equally for me, it gave me enormous growth and I think some of those incidents would have galvanised the league to continue that drive to get the game to where it is today."

On-and-off the field, Lee's football CV is quite impressive.

She was the first woman to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, she's a five-time Helen Lambert medallist for the Victorian women’s competition best and fairest, a seven-time club best and fairest, a dual Lisa Hardeman medallist for best on ground in the Grand Final, a triple premiership player, a six-time All-Australian and 16-time Victorian representative.

Nowadays, she's leading the way in football administration. She's currently working for the AFL as the national women and girls action plan lead, and before that was general manager women's football at the Western Bulldogs and women's football operations manager at Melbourne.

"One of the biggest challenges I always had was I couldn't understand why people weren't embracing women's footy, I couldn't understand why people weren't open to growing the game with women in it," she said.

"As a player, as an administrator, as a president walking into rooms, I just had no currency and I just had no value. No one really took the time to genuinely want to hear about women's football nor to speak to me or to others so it was difficult at the time.

"I guess part of that was my motivation in terms of continuing that journey (in football), and making sure there is equal representation, making sure there is opportunities for women. I think as a young girl, as a six- or seven-year-old, I never saw women commentating, I never saw women umpiring. It just had to change and gladly it has.

"I've spent the best part of 30-odd years invested in the game and invested in the women's space so I'm pretty passionate about it."

The Inside Game is a podcast series that takes a peek behind the scenes of the high-performance world of the AFL and AFLW. Join renowned AFL reporter Sarah Olle as she chats with high-performance experts who share the one-percenters that make the difference between an average day and a great day, fuelled by the John West Protein+ range.