During Round 14, Hawthorn and the AFL community will celebrate the role women play at all levels of Australian Rules Football – from participation to administration, volunteering and supporting.

The contribution of women and girls is critical to the development and growth of the game, with a vast number of females involved in every aspect of football around the country.

This year, Women’s Round is focused on talent – with the inaugural AFL Women’s Exhibition game to be played as curtain-raiser to the Melbourne versus Western Bulldogs game at the MCG on Saturday.

Women are essential to the fabric of the game, and have been for over 150 years.

35 per cent of club members across each of the 18 AFL clubs are women, while 136,133 participants of activities like NAB AFL Auskick, lcub and AFL 9s are female (12,019 are NAB AFL Auskick participants).

5,500 coaches and 2,000 umpires around Australia are women while 35 per cent of Australian football volunteers are also women.

Women make up over a third of Hawthorn’s full-time staff at the Ricoh Centre, Waverley Park.

To celebrate, hawthornfc.com.au and HawksTV will publish a special feature interview with Caryn Clarkson, wife of Hawks Coach Alastair and Number One Female ticket holder, Helen Kapalos.

The Hawks are also proud to honour the role of women on match-day, with its nominated charity on Sunday Cancer Council Tasmania.

Hawks fans are encourage to wear a splash of pink with their brown and gold on Sunday in support of and those affected by breast and women’s cancers.

100 women dressed in pink will form Hawthorn’s Guard of Honour as the team runs out before Sunday’s clash against Brisbane. These inspiring women have all been touched by cancer in some way and have been involved with Cancer Council Tasmania.

Pre-game, Kathy Birchall, mother of defender Grant will be speaking in the Club’s official President’s pre-match function, while Deborah De Williams, the 2011 Tasmanian of the Year, World Record ultra-marathon athlete and breast cancer survivor will be speaking in the Club’s Knights of the Round Table function.