Pearce is tackled during a Women's AFL exhibition match in May. Credit:Getty Images Sunday's clash at Etihad Stadium will be the first women's AFL game to be televised. The total number of women's games contested between AFL sides will be dictated by the response from the clubs. The AFL hopes four more clubs will have women's teams from 2017, or sooner. Women's football is particularly advanced in Western Australia and Queensland, which makes the four clubs based there natural candidates.

Richmond, which has a woman as its president, is understood to be exploring the formation of a women's team. The eventual formation of an elite women's competition would bring the sport up to speed with soccer and cricket, which both have established women's leagues. AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, who earlier this year said he wanted to bring forward the original target of season 2020 for a national women's competition, said he would seek input from all clubs. "The AFL believes there's an appetite for a national women's competition. We're now convinced that there's enough depth of talent for that to be earlier rather than later. The next stage is to be engaging the broader industry in the conversation," he said. "The view is that there's enough depth so that by 2017 we could have six teams to the standard of this year's games.

"This is important because it's the right thing to do. Women have always been involved in every aspect of football and there are young girls and women who want to play, and they want to be good and they want to have that aspirational target. "I'm pleased we are having this conversation and that there is a demand for this. And I'm thrilled that the growth in women's football is as strong as it is, and with talented girls who want to play as high a standard as they can." Female football participation has tripled over the past five years, now accounting for 19 per cent of total participants. The AFL said there was 15 per cent growth in the number of women playing football in 2014, taking the total figure to 195,000. About 27,300 of those players are aged from five to 12 and registered with Auskick. McLachlan has appointed Josh Vanderloo to develop the new national women's competition. As part of an executive restructure announced by the AFL last week, women's football now comes under the remit of game development, which also has a new general manager, Simon Lethlean.

While it has prided itself historically as a progressive organisation and influencer, the AFL has historically struggled to support and promote women in the industry. Former league CEO Andrew Demetriou admitted the lamentable fact in his farewell speech last year. Women have for decades made up roughly half of the game's audience – in crowds and as television viewers – and membership. But women have not been promoted, or always supported, to the code's highest circles of influence.