The AFL was planning to announce the landmark event of the August 16 broadcast on May 12, the day of an annual industry event that recognises the importance of women to the game and the challenges they face. Tayla Harris taking a big grab in 2014. Credit:Getty Images Though still in the early planning stages from a broadcast perspective, the women's match will air at 12:30pm live in Melbourne and will also be broadcast nationally on Channel Seven. Channel Seven issued a statement late on Thursday to say it is in "pre-production with the AFL" for what will be "a history-making AFL television first in Australia". The network said it would have more details about the broadcast in "coming weeks".

This is the first year the AFL has sanctioned two women's matches involving players from all over Australia who nominated for a draft. The third, and most recent, women's draft in early April received poor mainstream exposure after it was publicised by the AFL the day before it occurred. But it saw 34 of Australia's most outstanding female footballers selected by the Bulldogs (to be coached by former Collingwood and Brisbane Bears player Craig Starcevich this year) and the Demons (to be coached by pioneer Michelle Cowan). A revamp of the women's draft saw a selection of players, including one of the best, and best-known, female footballers, Daisy Pearce, retained by the clubs they have previously represented. In Pearce's case, that club is Melbourne. Only last week Alberti questioned the AFL's commitment to women's football, telling Fairfax after attending the female footballers' draft: "Let's just say I believe that far much more could be done. "The recognition that these women deserve right here and now is just not happening."

Alberti also said she believes that if the AFL was to achieve its vision of establishing a national female competition by 2017 - McLachlan brought the target in from the initial goal of 2020 – it may need a dedicated executive on the job. Presently, the women's football project largely falls under the remit of the AFL's Dorothy Hisgrove, its general manager of people, customer and community. But Alberti wondered last week if Hisgrove's broad-ranging brief meant women's football was not getting the attention it deserved. "I think she's been working incredibly hard to try [to] bring women's football to the forefront," Alberti said of Hisgrove, who she met with in the off-season. "Perhaps they need to give a bit more support and help to Dorothy. She appears to me to be working under the pump. She's a dynamo of a woman, but maybe she needs some more resources and support to be able to do this." Loading

According to AFL research, women's football at Auskick, under-nines, club and school level has grown in the past year by about 15 per cent, and it's estimated there are 194,000 participants. There were 268 nominations for this year's women's draft.