Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett has called on the AFL to hand all clubs an AFLW licence by the 2020 season.

Kennett, who rejoined the Hawks as president last year, said the matter would be high on the agenda at the next meeting between club presidents and the AFL commission, with the Hawks one of multiple clubs yet to be given an entry date into the women’s competition.

“I want to make sure that those clubs that do not have a women’s team in the AFLW, are able to have a team in that competition in the year 2020,” Kennett said told SEN Breakfast on Tuesday morning.

“At the moment there’s a few of us who have not been given a year and I think that’s discriminatory against certain clubs.

“I also think it’s discriminatory against the girls that we have playing for us in the VFL(W).”

Kennett says the AFL is hesitant to expand the competition too quickly for fear of diluting the talent pool, but said that the continued growth of the sport at all levels would likely negate such an issue. 

“We’ve had very good discussions with Richard Goyder, we’ve also had very good discussions with Gil McLachlan about bringing [licences by 2020] about,” the former Victorian Premier said.  

“They are worried about an uneven competition in terms of personnel – ‘are there enough female footballers playing football so that you don’t weaken the quality of the competition?’.

“But the fastest growing sport at the moment is women’s football.

“The number of young women playing football is growing exponentially so there will be sufficient talent.”

The Hawks this year launched their inaugural women’s side in the VFLW, enlisting a bold list-management strategy as they landed a host of marquee-signings including the likes of AFLW stars Sarah Perkins, Phoebe McWilliams and Bec Beeson.

The approach appears to have paid dividends early in the season, with the Hawks sitting unbeaten after three rounds, including a 51-point win over Carlton on Saturday.