The 43-year-old will become an inaugural AFLW coach for the second time, after it was announced she would be Hawthorn FC's head coach in their inaugural season in 2022/23.

"To re-enter the AFLW for me is enormous, and not something I actually thought I would ever have the opportunity to do again," she told Hawthorn media.

The club did not apply for one of the inaugural licences in the AFLW back in 2016 but Goddard said the club was evolving and pushed for its inclusion in next year's season.

"They didn't see it as part of their plans [in 2016] and it quickly changed at the club. I love that I'm part of a club that's part of an evolving opinion and they see the value of women and how this rounds out their footy club and that's really exciting to be a part of a family like that," she said.

"I'm really grateful that Hawthorne has stuck by me. They've shown a lot of faith in me, all along, at the end of 2019 was the first that they started speaking to me and I just felt valued. Right from the start I felt I was going to be able to make an impact at the footy club and so I'm grateful that they've stuck with me on that journey and now here we are."

She will be hoping to recreate her success the second time round, after her stint as inaugural Adelaide Crows coach saw the side take home the AFLW's first premiership in 2017.

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In June when she received her OAM, she told The Canberra Times women had been undervalued in sport for so long, it would be a long road to sporting equality.

But one of those steps in the AFLW was introducing four new teams - Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney Swans to join the existing 14 teams.

The AFL Commission confirmed on Thursday all four would join the competition for the 2022/23 season.

"Now we've got all 18 clubs in, we can now start having more of those conversations towards equality and what that full time space looks like for the athletes and for the coaches," she said.

"And don't get me wrong, not every AFLW side needs to have a woman as a head coach, but the inequalities at the moment are stark and we need to look at how we're going to change and influence that, and having male advocates in these positions who are actually leveraging and promoting women to these roles is really, really important."

Goddard is the first female coach to be named in the entering top four sides, with all 14 incumbent teams coached by men.

"There's more work to do. One woman coaching in the AFLW isn't enough. There are some opportunities and we've got a look at where that change is going to happen. Quotas are an option, they're not tokenistic," she said.

"But I think there's a lot of unconscious bias in football, and I guess for women in sport generally, and even to the point with our players at the moment, all they want to do is feel valued and feel legitimate. They want to be legitimate in the eyes of the public and one way that they think they're going to get that legitimacy is by having retired footy players from the AFL competition heading up those programs and we need to change that, we need to change that bias."

The AFLW position means she will step back from her VLFW duties with the team, but she said she had been barraged with congratulations messages from her former team.