HELEN Hall isn't a football administrator, or one of the many talented women behind the scenes of a footy club, but she has played a significant role in her son Barry making it as far as he has in this game.

In Womens' Round — as in the Mother's Day Round — it's a good time to consider how much you owe your mother, and how much you took for granted, in helping your footy career. Footy mums everywhere are the unsung heroes of so many successful careers.

Your dad always gives you advice and you think he's a big influence on your career, but your mum sort of sits in the background and does all the hard work and get no accolades.

We take for granted how much influence our parents have on our career. Of course we want to play footy, but without them you're not going to play it. And it's not only the work they put in, it's also how much money it all costs.

My parents weren't financially well off. What we lived in wasn't that flash, and we struggled enough as it was. To put travel and fees and all that stuff on top of it, it was a big sacrifice. It was a pretty big effort, and I'll be forever in their debt.

From the moment I started playing back in the under 10s, my mum has kept a scrapbook. It was bit pathetic to start with — she'd only have things like: "B Hall 1 goal" to put in it, but she was pretty proud of that at that stage and to her credit she's kept it going until now. I know if I was her I would have stopped years ago.

And there have a been a couple of stories in which she has featured. I remember one had a headline something like: "Leave my boy alone". I'm not sure what it was about, but I rang her and said: "Mum, hang on a minute."

There's been a few of times where people have rung her direct, not gone through the club channels, which is disappointing, and Mum felt obligated to comment. She just gave her honest opinion. I've told her now not to speak, and if anyone has a comment to make, it's me.

One thing that she did stop years ago when I was at St Kilda, was going to games. I know supporters get into me and that's all fine, but Mum gets upset when really personal things are said, nasty things you wouldn't want to hear said about a loved one.

She had a couple of experiences where she said, hang on: "I'm his mother, I don't want to hear that, can you just quiet down." That just makes it worse.

None of my family go to the footy now because of that reason. Even my brother has been caught in a few fights, just sticking up for me when things are said.

It's sad that people get that carried away with stuff.

I suppose you've got to be strong enough to block it out, but Mum's a pretty emotional and sensitive type of person, and she just didn't enjoy it. She still goes and watches my brother in the local league, but prefers to listen to my games on the radio and watch on TV.

They have been up to Sydney a couple of times, but they've also got a bit of a fear of flying, so they don't make trips very frequently, maybe just once a year they'll load up the car and come up, or if it's a milestone game.

From a sporting perspective, you can't top that feeling of winning the grand final, but from a personal point of view, I got the best feeling when I decided to renovate my parents' house.

It's pretty much been the same since I moved out of home. I'd stay down for a weekend, and we would have to do the bed shuffle because there just wasn't any room, so I thought they've done enough and sacrificed plenty for me, it's time to give something back. And they are stoked. They love it.

It was such a good feeling to see the smiles on their faces, and to let them know how much I appreciate everything they did for me and my footy career.

While speaking about women, I'm honoured to have been made an ambassador for the annual White Ribbon Day, an international day that highlights the fight to eliminate violence against women. I was asked to be an ambassador this year, and I didn't have think twice about it, because it's such a serious issue in society, and one we should all get behind, not only on White Ribbon Day — November 25 — but during every day of the year.

Barry Hall's column appears every Friday during footy season.