It has been a year of fence-leaping. And Jess Bibby has become the latest to pursue another sporting career as horizons broaden for female stars.

Ask the 37-year-old about the move from basketball to Aussie rules and she will tell you: "I'm excited and terrified at the same time."

Bibby retired in February after a stellar career, the veteran guard clocking up a league-record 394 appearances in the WNBL, winning two championships with Dandenong then another two with Canberra. But she still was not done with competitive sport.

As a "life-long footy fanatic" growing up in Melbourne she leapt at the chance of playing AFL and this week signed with the GWS Giants.

For her, the role literally fits her well.

"You don't have to have such great size or be a certain physique to play football which suits me," she said.

"I've always been quite a small basketball player. So I think just the athletic traits that basketballers have are going to be really appealing clubs down the line."

This week the WNBL start without her for the first time in two decades. It does so, faced by unprecedented pressure from other women's sports. Last year's WNBL was streamed through YouTube and Periscope after the ABC axed its broadcasts at the end of 2014/15 season.

The WNBL has just launched its fresh attempt to remind audiences and corporate Australia of its "premium product".

With the rise of other women's codes in the past year, the WNBL is keen to remind its participants that it offers women the potential to earn millions in America's WNBA and possible exposure in the Olympics.

'Basketball's been behind' in promoting women's sport

The WNBL's general manager at Basketball Australia, Paul Maley, said the league's predicament is only a glitch and the success of netball, women's AFL, cricket and soccer can only help the league by expanding the number of corporate partners interested in women's sport.

Maley said investors will need to get on board before any broadcast deal can be secured, just as the other women's sports were required to do.

"The reality is that we've got plenty of interest from networks, but we need to be able to pay for fully produced content," he said.

"And Basketball Australia is not in a position to do that. We simply don't have the 800,000 to $1 million roughly that it would require.

"I think there's a growing awareness of just how good our female athletes are. And the fact they deserve the same level of visibility and financial support [as men]. All of that is a good thing for the WNBL."

Bibby feels deeply for the world-class athletes in the sport she still calls "her game".

"Our basketballers are some of the best in the world, so if we can't provide them with an ideal situation for them to showcase their talents then it is a scary prospect that we could lose girls to other sports," she said.

"It's heart breaking to see [it] isn't on television. It's hard when you're not on TV to get people to want to provide funding when it's difficult for them to promote themselves. So it's worrying.

"And you look at what all the other female sports have done — [what] the AFL, cricket and netball have done so wonderfully well the last few years. Basketball's definitely been behind.

"They've made some positive strides in appointing Sally Phillips as head of the WNBL. She's a passionate former player who understands the predicament the league is in and hopefully she can start to get the ball rolling in getting the league back on par with all those other wonderful female sports.

"I certainly think everybody's going to be spoilt for options this summer in regards to what female sport they'd like to attend and support."