You go girls: Women's AFL match attracts highest Saturday night audience of 2016.

Saturday night’s All-Stars women’s game attracted the highest television ratings of the season, with 1.05 million at it’s peak.

The game between the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne was broadcast live on Channel 7, and achieved an average national audience of 746,000.

For comparison, the game averaged 387,000 Melbourne viewers, with the next best game of the season, between St Kilda and Geelong, achieving 347,000.

The game stands as the second biggest women’s sporting event of 2016, beaten only by the Australian Open final.

More than 6,000 spectators gathered at Whitten Oval, where they watched the Western Bulldogs beat Melbourne by 36 points.

Moana Hope of the Western Bulldogs was a standout, scoring six goals.

Last night’s Melb/WBull drew a 387k Melb avg tv audience.

As comparison:
– Best Sat n avg in ’16, 347k (StK/Gee)
– dreamtime Sat avg, 331k

— Patrick Keane (@AFL_PKeane) September 4, 2016

The outstanding support has added fuel to the discussion around the pay offered to professional female AFL players.

The Age reports that the initial offer for the inaugural women’s league was $5000 for regular players, $10,000 for priority signings and top draft picks, and $25,000 for marquee players.

2017 will see eight clubs from across Australia compete in the first ever women’s league.