Peters, who comes from Newcastle, said she expected more from the self-proclaimed sporting capital of the world after back-to-back friendly wins over Brazil in Penrith and Newcastle attracted over 15,000 fans to both games.

The crowd of almost 11,000 was a significant increase on the last time the Matildas appeared in Melbourne when they played the first part of a double-header as a Rio Olympics send-off in front of a poor crowd, prior to the Socceroos clash with Greece at Etihad Stadium.

Interest in the Matildas and women's sport has evolved since then and Peters, 38, questioned what the factors were as to why more did not pack out AAMI Park and felt the friendly could have been marketed better.

“I think the point of it all is that it’s got to be pumped up more,” Peters told FourFourTwo.

“They advertised it well in Newcastle, the football communities I hang out with, the local grassroots clubs, they knew it was on.

“I didn’t have to tell them it was on, but when I asked about the Melbourne game ‘did you know the Matildas were on?’, they didn’t know.

“How much of the average person knew that game was on? There are a lot of reasons, but I was just surprised and let down really.

“Why isn’t it in mainstream media? That’s my question, we’re heading towards something very special. I know the Matildas have often said ‘yeah, we want to win the World Cup’ and it’s almost become a throwaway line.

“Perhaps the public need to be educated more about how special it is to have an Australian football team that is ranked sixth in the world and could win a major tournament in the next decade.

“I just don’t get why the media of all people wouldn’t jump on it, I don’t know. Is it because of women’s sport still? Probably.”

Peters also questioned the efforts of Football Federation Australia (FFA) to promote the fixture.

She said the resignation of Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou in Sydney on the same day had an effect on their priorities.

“I’m trying to find out the reasons why, OK, so we’re too busy following the cricket and Socceroos, so that’s where our priority is,” she said.

“Well at least we know that’s where the priority is and FFA can actually go to work on that and will be pushing it to mainstream media.

“The very fact Ange’s press conference was on the same day as the Matildas, it’s not good management by the governing body in regards to marketing one of your national teams.

“Hopefully it’s a wake-up call to them that you can’t just rely and expect that people automatically know about it. They still don’t know, we have to keep putting it in people’s faces.

“The mainstream media keeps getting surprised at the attention on social media and interest in women’s football. Like come on guys, shouldn’t the media be the ones leading it, not the last ones to find out?”

FoxSports announced The Matildas their broadcast had a potential reach of 204,000 while SBS had 145,000 tuned into the game.

Peters said the broadcast numbers showed there was genuine interest in the Matildas around the country.

She also acknowledged due to the amount of sport that happens in Melbourne, it perhaps was not a novelty compared to the rural parts of Australia.

Australia will meet China in a re-match in Geelong on Sunday afternoon.

“Perhaps the regional areas will appreciate it more rather than the inner city of Melbourne, there were 10,000 people there, that’s as many as they could pull,” she said.

“That’s where the value lies as in the numbers, so you’d be expecting to get more people in Geelong then?

“The more, the better, so if it means more people in regional centres are going to come, then take them there because it deserves a big crowd. They can then see one of the best players in the world, Sam Kerr do a backflip.”

Peters has over 100 games under her belt for Australia and felt women’s football had come a long way, but feels there is still a condescending attitude towards it.

“How quickly can we change this mentality? We’re aware of how things aren’t fair, the women are doing just as much as the men and arguably playing better than the men,” she said.

“They’re on the verge of winning a World Cup which the men won’t do in their lifetime, so why wouldn’t you be throwing everything at this particular team to succeed other than the reason of ‘well, they’re just women… it’s only women’s football’.

“By not throwing everything at it, it does show where the pecking order lies and that there is a pecking order.”