But the biggest fruits of the juggernaut’s impact are being seen at grassroots level.

On Thursday, about 160 Year 7-10 students from Emmanuel, Warrnambool and Brauer colleges gathered on the Ovals at Emmanuel for the AFL Western District-Western Bulldogs female football day.

For the first time, the girls competed for shields at junior and intermediate level, with Warrnambool College prevailing in both grand finals.

Warrnambool College junior girls coach Adam Dowie said it was good to see how football was being embraced by girls in the region.

“It’s probably the best time, if you’re a female footballer over the last hundred years, (to be playing now),” he said.

“It’s a really good pathway.

“(The girls today) had terrific skills. It was played in really good spirit.”

Warrnambool College has had a female football academy for two years, and after the success of Thursday’s event, another is looking to follow suit.

Emmanuel junior girls coach Fiona McCosh gauged the interest of her players after the match to potentially establish a female footy academy to mirror the school’s highly-successful male academy.

“They are completely pumped,” she said.

“Just for the junior teams, we had 90 girls want to do it. We brought 50 of our Year 8 girls and told the Year 7s that they’d get their chance next year.”

The district’s three inaugural youth girls female football teams – South Warrnambool, Warrnambool and Old Collegians – also had a presence on the day, helping run the skills session that preceded the games.

Roosters coach Alicia Drew said it was encouraging to see the enthusiasm and skills on display.

“There’s some really impressive girls that hopefully we’ll see at a football club soon,” she said while watching on at the junior final.

“The standard of footy is significantly better this year.”