Ex-Matilda let down by lack of buzz

“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?”

I live in Melbourne and didn't know the game was on until today..... Disappointing marketing by someone.

— Rob G (@robnavyblues) November 22, 2017

Football fans complain endlessly about media, AFL, FFA etc, but let themselves down when they can't be bothered showing up to this.

— Adrian Vitez (@avitez) November 22, 2017

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.”