Raelene Castle is excited by the challenge of turning around rugby's fortunes in Australia, but doesn't believe her appointment as Rugby Australia chief executive is a ground-breaking moment for women in sports administration.
The former Netball New Zealand and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs National Rugby League chief executive was on Tuesday unveiled as the replacement for the outgoing Bill Pulver, with Rugby Australia chairman Cameron Clyne declaring her "absolutely the right candidate".
Castle is said to have been appointed ahead of former Wallabies captain Phil Kearns in a two-horse race that pitted the latter's inherent knowledge of the code and old-school connections against a move to the future and Castle's connection to sport's modern-day commercial realities.
In the end, the national body opted for the New Zealander's history of sports administration in what many will view as an historic moment for Australian sport. Not that Castle sees it that way, even though she is both the first women to claim such a position of power in any of Australia's four football codes and the first female CEO in any of the major national unions in world rugby.
"It's a consideration and it's interesting the media have an enormous fascination with it," Castle said when asked about her ascension to one of the top jobs in Australian sport.
"The reality is sport has gender equity in it," Castle said. "There's people from both [sexes] really delivering at grassroots level, so I don't think it's an enormous step to have a female chief executive.
"I'm excited about the opportunity. My experience in rugby league was very strong; I don't expect my experience in rugby union to be any different."
Castle endured a difficult year at the Bulldogs before she departed the club towards the end of the 2017 NRL season. She had overseen a contract extension for coach Des Hasler amid a swathe of negativity, particularly on the part of Bulldogs fans who were upset at the club's style of play, only for Hasler then to be shown the door himself. Hasler now is suing the club for more than $Aus2 million in damages.
One of Castle's first priorities will be to forge a working relationship with Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who is renowned for being a volatile character -- highlighted by his recent television interview with an English reporter following Australia's loss to England at Twickenham.
In that interview, Cheika ranted at a television interviewer who asked him about his mid-game outburst picked up on the TV broadcast in which he appeared to call someone on the field "f------ cheats" during the first half.
Just how she manages Cheika, and his group of tight-knit confidants, in the run to Rugby World Cup 2019 will be an interesting sidebar to the Wallabies' on-field fortunes under the man himself.
Castle, meanwhile, said that her time at the Bulldogs had "really helped me understand the Australian sporting landscape".
"It's a unique landscape, so having had four years here -- the cultural challenges, the opportunities, where the media fit into that landscape -- and also the opportunity, having always watched everything across rugby no matter where it was happening here, having an understanding of that, has been really helpful.
"And so that experience both with the Bulldogs, in this landscape, and also working with a coach like Des Hasler, who's a strong personality, that will also help me when I have to forge a very strong relationship with Michael Cheika."
Castle will begin the role from January after she "takes a break" and wraps up a review of New Zealand Rugby League. Less than two months later, she will get her first taste of the professional game as Rugby Australia chief when the revised 15-team Super Rugby competition kicks off in late February.
Given the changes to that competition, the biggest of which was the removal of Western Force amid an ugly legal battle, the game cannot afford to continue to slip at the provincial level.
But Castle is confident the decision of her predecessor Pulver, and the rest of the then Australian Rugby Union board, will begin to bear fruit when the Brumbies, Melbourne Rebels, Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs return to action in 2018.
"I think that's a challenge that SANZAAR recognise and we all need to be looking at that in a competitive sports market: How do we make those games competitive? The [player] depth issue I think will change now with going to four teams, so that means we will have four teams that are more competitive.
"At the end of the day, everyone loves winning and that's what we want to see. And we need Super Rugby to be strong, I'll be working closely with the CEOs in those franchises to make sure we can all bring our collective thoughts together to make sure they're as successful as possible, be it on the field or also attracting members and making those events something that people want to attend."