The moment when Boyd met his daughter with fellow star Bulldog Marcus Bontempelli standing nearby signing autographs for adoring fans will forever resonate strongly with the third-year women's football coach.

The value his daughter placed on the stars of women's football is what he believes the south-west region is capable of to take the development of women's sport to another level.

Groves, who travelled to Warrnambool on Friday to attend South West Sport's Change Our Game forum, urged the region to value and continue to support its rising stars as female sport continues its steep rise.

"Females generally need that value to perform and just understanding where a young woman is at with her life and wanting to be involved in a club atmosphere is really important," the 37-year-old said.

"If you are in a nice, comfortable environment I think that's the key. If they're in a comfortable environment they'll want to play and also be able to achieve at higher levels than what they may otherwise do if they're not in an environment that supports them."

Groves said he was excited by the change football in south-west Victoria had experienced in recent seasons. He was also eager to see more female footballers from the region reach the elite level.

Commonwealth Games javelin gold medallist Kathyrn Mitchell, who was also at the forum on Friday, said the focus was always on where the improvement lies in women's sport.

But the Casterton export said the region and the country was ahead of the game compared to the rest of the world.

"It's a progression and more women are getting involved in sport and it's moving forward," she said.

"We always focus on where we like it to improve but there are more and more women playing and more getting into what would traditionally be male roles. It's always a work in progress."

But the 36-year-old, who is preparing to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said the shackles of the past still held some areas of women's sport back.

"Looking at it from an image perspective with social media I think there is a lot of pressure on young girls to still conform or to be a certain image or sport is maybe manly, that was certainly a little bit of my experience growing up," she said.

"It wasn't seen as cool but I hoped to be a sportswoman at the top of her game and comfortable with who I am and what I look like and I'm comfortable with how I need to look to do the sport that I do well.

"I hope sports like AFL will open that up and get rid of those preconceived ideas about what you have to look like to do sport."

Mitchell hoped she could inspire the next generation of females to drive the ever-changing sport landscape.

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