Analysis: Women's sport enjoying a surge of popularity in Australia

Growing interest and changing perceptions have helped drive an unprecedented surge in the popularity of Australian women's sport.

For too long, women's sport has been an untapped market where the opportunities for female athletes to play at the elite level have been scarce. Until 2016 when two ground-breaking national announcements, and a spate of world-class international performances, seem to have changed the women's sporting landscape forever.

A major breakthrough came in Australia's most popular and successful football code known as the Australian Football League (AFL), a sport that has been monopolized at the national level by men for over 100 years.

But over the past year, the AFL has recognized the growing demand and desire for a women's presence in the sport.

In June, it announced the introduction of a new, eight-team national women's football league, set to kick off in 2017. For the first time in AFL history which was first played in 1858, women have been given a national platform to play the sport they love.

The other breakthrough in women's sport came in May when Netball Australia unveiled its new and improved national netball league, set to commence in 2017.

Each week, two games will be broadcast live on free-to-air television, in what Netball Australia's chief executive Kate Palmer described as "the most significant broadcasting rights agreement in the history of Australian women's sport."

With lucrative television rights, increased digital exposure and a newly reconstructed national competition, Australian netball, the most popular women's sport in the nation, is set for a new wave of professionalism and opportunities.

These two major national announcements have helped debunk the old myth that there's no interest in or demand for Australian women's sport.

The success of these two national women's leagues could have a remarkable domino effect on participation, ticket sales, media exposure and revenue.

As the AFL and netball clubs garner greater exposure on television and on various media channels, a new, wider audience awaits.

Ticket sales, which bring in revenue, can lead to more corporate sponsorships, which in turn can result in higher salaries being paid to the athletes. Soon, it is hoped that these women can finally support themselves with sport as their full-time job.

In addition to the two pioneering national women's leagues are the success stories of some of Australia's more internationally recognized athletes and teams in the past year.

The Matildas, Australia's national women's football team, have been riding their own wave of momentum success following their quarter-finals berth in last year's FIFA Women's World Cup, the first time an Australian team, men or women, had ever reached the knockout stage of football's showpiece.

In March, the Matildas booked a spot at the Olympics for the first time since 2004, going undefeated in the qualifying tournament.

And the buzz around the Matildas hasn't gone unnoticed. Earlier this year, chief executive of Seven West Media, one of Australia's most successful digital and free-to-air platforms, said he wanted more women's sport on television after the Matildas' ratings success, which peaked at 373,000 during one of their qualifying matches.

For the first time in a very long time, it feels as though Australia's women's national soccer team has matched, if not amplified, the excitement and patriotic support of the men's team heading into a major tournament.

Then there's the Australian Diamonds, the national netball team, which last year won their third consecutive, and 14th overall World Championship title.

Meanwhile, the Campbell sisters, Cate and Bronte, have become two of the Australia's best gold medal hopes in the Rio swimming pool, Cate having recently broken the world record for the 100m women's freestyle.

And in another coup for women's sport, Michelle Payne, an Australian jockey, became the first female to win the Melbourne Cup in 2015.

In a very male-dominated domain, these athletes and teams have been the trailblazers for the revival and the development of women's sport in Australia.

The next step in this remarkable dinosaur tale will be the development of sport as a professional career and dependent source of income for these women.

But for now, great satisfaction should be taken from the fact that Australian women's sport is getting the respect and exposure it finally deserves. Endit