Women's AFL player Moana Hope played for the Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium and said she was staggered at the attention. "It's a dream come true to be honest," Hope said. "To have the game televised and see people showing up to the stadium as we warmed up was amazing. "I was so excited and I love the game whether I'm playing down at the park or at Etihad Stadium but I was just so happy for people to see what women are capable of doing on the footy field. "I had numerous messages from randoms on my Facebook page on Sunday night saying how amazing it was." Despite the disappointment of losing, Hope said it would be great to see more live women's AFL games in the coming years, with the AFL looking at fielding six sides for games in 2017 and eventually a women's AFL competition.

The Australian Opals beat New Zealand in the home leg of their Rio Olympic basketball qualifier 61-41 in front of more than 11,400 supporters at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night. The Opals and Boomers tickets were a double-bill which sold out, drawing 15,064 fans. Bastion EBA chief executive Jack Watts said having multiple women's sports attract big audiences in the one weekend was a sign of acceptance of the codes. "There is a lot of momentum behind women's sports at [the] moment and we are starting to see a critical mass – maybe that was our tipping point," Watts said. "The Diamonds won the World Cup and the AFL women's footy was live on television so people could see the calibre of those athletes – maybe that is what it needs for a critical mass of momentum to bring on more support."

Netball Australia chief executive Kate Palmer said in her 30-year involvement she had never seen women's sport enjoy such a high profile. "It's like everyone's woken up. And we shouldn't marvel at it, but, you know what, we're going to marvel at it, because it's so wonderful. It's about time, but I think it's deserved, too. This is not just about getting equity; they just absolutely deserve it." Palmer said the major difference for netball at this year's World Cup, compared with past events, had been the level of fan engagement. "People are heavily engaged in the sport, you heard the way they were cheering the athletes – they know who they are as people and that's a real shift," she said. "Middle-aged women are saying to these athletes 'you are my absolute hero' and I [am] thinking 'that's interesting isn't it?', because we expect it out of AFL, but for other women to say they really hold female athletes up as people that inspire them, that's a shift." Apart from the commercial benefits to be gained from the exposure Palmer said she wanted the local netball community to feel proud of a sport that is so important to many Australians, yet rarely talked about in those terms. Just as the 1991 world championship final in Sydney was a turning point for the game, Palmer would also like to think that what we have just witnessed a watershed weekend. "I hope so. I hope we look back and say 'remember when this shifted women's sport forward'."

Nine's digital channel GEM showed the Opals and Boomers' games live, with 82,000 viewers tuning in for Opals and 141,000 for the Boomers – all despite the NBL and WNBL having not been on television since early this year. The WNBL is still looking for a new television broadcaster for the coming season after the ABC elected to stop week-to-week sporting broadcasts in favour of covering one-off sporting events. Earlier this year the Matildas also drew big Australian TV audiences for their FIFA women's World Cup games on SBS.