Kangaroos celebrate 'very humble' trailblazer, Shannon Campbell

Each July, the national competition celebrates and promotes its female coaches in a variety of ways.

This Saturday, the Kangaroos will do the same, as the club has elected to pay tribute to the first female coach in the history of AFL North West - Shannon Campbell.

Having taken up the reins of the Kangaroos women's side at the start of the year, Campbell has quickly earned the respect of her fellow coaches and teammates for her knowledge of the game and empathetic leadership style.

"This is her first year as a coach," co-coach Stu Goldfinch said.

"It's been good to be able to pass off some of my experience to her ... she's the first female head coach in this region, and hopefully it's a good precedent for other young women coming through the system to have a role model to look up to."

Alex Reed, a 22-year-old in her first season of AFL with the Kangaroos, said Campbell's greatest strength as a coach was her ability to connect to the players.

"She's really supportive," Reed said.

"She knows how to connect with us. We've got some experienced players and we have a lot of newbies, but she's able to connect with everyone on all levels."

As a mother of three, who works multiple jobs and while studying simultaneously, it is remarkable that Campbell has the time to play a recreational sport, let alone coach.

Given the volume of responsibility that Campbell carries day-to-day, one of her qualities that Reed finds most inspirational is her humility.

"She's very humble," she said.

"She just goes about her business but everything's always organised and done so well.

"Overall she's been a really great member for the club."

This weekend, the Kangaroos will be the only Tamworth team to take the field. It is a catch-up round, meaning games that were postponed due to weather or extraneous circumstances will be played this Saturday instead.

As the Kangaroos and Saints lost their round three clash to rain, it was pushed back to this Saturday.

And, given Inverell's renowned physicality, Goldfinch expects Tamworth to be in for a gruelling game.

"We know they're going to be a tough opponent," he said.

"They gave us a pretty good going-over when we met last time in Tamworth ... but we're going in there all guns blazing looking to come away with a win."

The women's game will begin from noon at Inverell's Varley Oval, with the men to follow at 2pm.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: