Kylie Minogue will dazzle 100,000 fans at the MCG this weekend, but the Tasmania Devils hope there will soon be another female vocal heard on grand final day.

In what would be an AFL first, the club wants to have both female and male voices on the official recording of their team song, which is expected to be selected by the end of the year.

The Devils’ song selection panel also wants the melody to sound just as good whether it is sung by an AFL player, one from the AFLW or any supporter in the stands, and that the lyrics are inclusive of all Tasmanians.

Chief executive from the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Caroline Sharpen, is part of the eight-person panel which has met three times to begin developing criteria, due to be released next month.

“One of the things that struck me in one of the very early meetings was just hearing how important it is for the team song to carry a female voice as well,” she said.

“This is a football club, the Tasmania Devils, we have AFL and AFLW teams as part of the one club, so the female vocal is going to be very much a part and a reflection of who the club actually is.”

The introduction of the AFLW a decade ago highlighted how deeply the male experience pervades football. The Western Bulldogs recorded an adaption of their song “Sons of the West” replacing “sons” with daughters”. Essendon recorded a new version of theirs sung by women with adapted lyrics, and several clubs made minor adaptations to remove or tweak gendered language.

Starting with a blank slate, the Devils’ song selection panel hopes to foreground women’s experiences. The club’s VFLW captain Meghan Gaffney, who has a decade of singing training, spent four years at GWS in the AFLW. She said she loved the Giants’ Big Big Sound, but felt that it resonated with the AFLW players less than it could have.

“When the song’s played, when you run out or when you end the game, it’s males that are singing that song,” she said. “It would be a nice feeling to be represented by a female and show that football is for men and women equally and that we don’t have to run out to a song before our game, listening to males sing.”

Gaffney said the Devils’ song will need to work in acoustically-challenged stadiums, as well as be “singable” by men and women. “It’s just where the song sits in a vocal range, so it’s easy for both men and women to sing, and it sounds good when both men and women sing or chant,” she said.

“But also, at the end of the day, the main way that this song is going to be sung is by football players and a lot of footy players aren’t musically inclined or talented, so it has to be arranged in a way that singers don’t need to be professional for the song to sound good.”

Sharpen said the panel, which also includes musical theatre performer John X and former Richmond player Matthew Richardson, found Gaffney’s perspective persuasive.

“She just spoke so articulately about her great career playing football and singing team songs that were probably written by and sung by blokes traditionally – it’s not always something that sits naturally either with the female voice, and the words don’t always include a feminine perspective,” she said.

“How can we really make sure that that’s an important part of this process and really include all of us here in Tasmania?”

There have already been more than 200 unsolicited song submissions to the club, and Up there Cazaly singer Mike Brady and Tasmanian punk band Luca Brasi have expressed an interest in penning the ditty.

The panel is expected to finalise criteria and formally call for submissions next month, before making a decision before the end of the year.