Over the course of three AFLW seasons, there’s been a series of very important, symbolic moments for women’s football.

There was the first game played in February 2017, between Carlton and Collingwood, when nearly 25,000 crammed into the Blues’ Ikon Park home ground, forcing ground staff to close the gates.

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At the start of this season, it was about a snap taken by football photographer Michael Willson of Geelong player Georgie Rankin running towards a crowd of adoring young girls , the obvious message that, unlike older female footy fans, here was an AFL hero the kids could actually themselves aspire one day to be.

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A couple of weeks ago there was another Willson photo, this one of Carlton star Tayla Harris captured in full flight as she was kicking, a picture which has already become iconic, subsequently adopted by the AFLW for its logo.

The bigger story was how the image, tweeted by broadcaster Channel 7 then retracted after persistent misogynist trolling, went viral. So angered were so many fans, peers and professional sportspeople from other fields about the caving in to prejudice, that a spontaneous public campaign not only saw the network restore the post, but the shot become news around the world.

Saturday’s AFLW grand final between Adelaide and Carlton, though, produced the most important moment yet. And it came not when the Crows clinched their second flag, inevitable from half-time in another dominant performance.

It came when the Adelaide Oval scoreboard splashed the attendance figure across the scoreboard, no fewer than 53,034 fans turning out to watch the premiership decider, a number which staggered seemingly everybody, even the organisers.

Carlton coach Daniel Harford’s post-match comment: “This might be one of the most significant moments in Australian football history,” was no hyperbole, merely a statement of fact.

That number was the biggest for a female sporting event in Australian history. And it is a number which has completely destroyed the last shreds of cynical, sexist attitudes to women’s sport in this country.

To give the turnout some context, the crowd was bigger than for every NRL game played last year barring the grand final. And bigger than for 20-odd of 207 AFL games, including finals.

The Australian sporting public is interested and watching a lot of women’s sport now. Indeed, a recent survey conducted by long-time national women’s cricket team sponsor the Commonwealth Bank suggested nearly half of those polled were more interested in women’s sport now than even a year ago.

Simply, anyone who continues to argue that there isn’t a market for women’s sport in the face of that evidence makes themselves look stupid.

Not that the naysayers don’t continue to do that.

Their arguments about skills have run dry as a series of rule changes and the natural improvement that comes with better facilities and coaching have created a far superior standard than we saw in those first two seasons. Not to mention higher scoring.

Even on Sunday, though, in the face of that incredible crowd, the odd Neanderthal continued to carp on social media, asking how many would turn up without free admission.

Funnily enough, at the same time, the final day of the Sheffield Shield cricket final between Victoria and New South Wales at the Junction Oval also had free admission. The crowd numbered barely a couple of hundred. It wasn’t a great example for that argument.

Former Carlton football club president John Elliott, whose attitudes to sport and society were looking dated 20 years ago, also chose to weigh in dismissively, despite the fact his own club was playing in the grand final.

“I know, the sheilas are playing, he said on radio. I won’t watch it. I don’t care. I think the women’s football is pathetic.”

Dutifully recorded in a local newspaper, his comments attracted a series of similar responses in the reader comments section, as though administrators would somehow be alarmed that a handful of dinosaurs weren’t going to join the part.

Which is what a lot of them still don’t seem to understand. The growth of women’s football has been so rapid that there is no argument to be fought anymore about it’s worth. That battle has been won decisively, participants, women, girls, men and boys all answering resoundingly in the affirmative.

The demand now isn’t just that women’s football be a part of the sporting landscape. It’s that it be treated with the importance it deserves.

That will be put to the test next season when four new teams – Richmond, St Kilda, Gold Coast and West Coast – enter the AFLW competition.

The AFL has at times seemed reluctant to walk the walk in promotional terms on its own women’s competition, needlessly scheduling the bizarre AFLX tournament in competition with AFLW, the season still short, and even Sunday’s grand final going head-to-head against the North Melbourne-Brisbane men’s game.

It can’t afford to be tentative any longer. The messages keep coming. And Sunday’s amazing turnout for Adelaide’s second AFLW premiership win was the final definitive pronouncement that when it comes to women’s football, the people have spoken. Loud and clear.

You can read more of RoCo’s work at Footyology.