Hawthorn AFL club president Jeff Kennett wants his team to be the first to field a woman in its senior side.

Mr Kennett says women have a future at the elite level in Australian football.

"I have become increasingly impressed with how many members of the female gender or sex play football and pursue physical activities and are remarkably fit," he told the Herald Sun newspaper.

"And just as we have seen women now increasingly participating in not only the defence forces but the emergency services, one can really ask the question: `Will a woman one day, based on merit, seek to play AFL football?'.

"And I don't think that's a situation that you can rule out for all of time. If that's the case, I'd love that person to play at Hawthorn."

But VFL legends Ron Barassi and Tom Hafey were not so sure.

"I don't think I'd like to see the female form be as forbidding as a man," Barassi said.

Hafey said: "I couldn't imagine it happening for a long, long, long, long time."

Under AFL rules, girls and boys cannot play football together after the age of 14.

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