At lunchtime next Sunday, AFL players will be back on Robertson Oval for the first time in four years, as premiers Richmond take on last year's runners-up Greater Western Sydney in a pre-season fixture.

They're the headline act in a massive weekend for Australian rules in the Riverina.

But at 5.10pm on Saturday, the clubs will also do battle - for premiership points - in round four of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition.

There's a revolution unfolding in women's sport, and Australian rules wants in.

Wagga's Gabby Colvin still can't quite believe she's an AFLW player.

There's nothing easy about combining a full-time job with a semi-professional sport. But the Melbourne Demons half-back-flanker wouldn't swap it for the world.

"That's probably the toughest part, trying to juggle work and then come here (to training) but it's been unreal. I'm just enjoying every second of it," Colvin said, as her Demons prepared for Friday's game against Collingwood.

"I pinch myself every day. It's just been such a whirlwind. It's probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. But it's so rewarding. It's a dream come true.

"Mentally and physically it's a big challenge, they push you to your limits. But it's just been the best thing ever."

Colvin went to the Demons in last year's draft. They'll be at home to West Coast next weekend, but she's thrilled to see the league taking a game to Wagga.

"It's awesome to see that young girls today can look up to us and strive for something," Colvin said.

"I used to remember going down to Wagga Tigers and kicking the ball at half-time with the boys and I'd get called a tomboy or a boy.

"It used to hurt my feelings but I'd do it anyway.

"But now it's normal. There's girls kicking at half-time and they all know how to kick too. It's amazing to see the pathways and academies. There's so much access.

"I think it's a very exciting time for women's sport. All these girls will be starting and playing at a young age and they get the same resources the boys had."

For a footballer who grew up playing netball, touch, and a little basketball, Colvin's thrilled at what's available now to young women who want a crack at professional sport.

Olympic gold medallist and professional rugby sevens player Alicia Lucas (nee Quirk) has already walked that road.

After building a foundation in other sports, Lucas took to rugby union and in 2016 was part of the Australian women's team's success at the Rio Olympics.

"I'm incredibly proud of the way the sporting landscape has shifted to that accessibility and availability for women's sport, to see it at the forefront of everyone's agenda," Lucas said, in a short break before training on Friday.

"It makes me a little bit jealous that girls have all those opportunities now but I'm proud about the future growth of skills, opportunities and professionalism that will come for country girls. I'm hoping it's only a short amount of time longer that I'm one of Wagga's only gold medallists."

Growing up in Wagga, Lucas was part of the basketball program at the Southern Sports Academy (SSA) and also excelled at touch, representing Australia after progressing through Wagga Touch competitions from the age of eight up to women's division one with Don Tuckwell's Audio.

Lucas, 27, says the new era is cause for excitement.

"I think it's great that girls can play whatever professional sport they want," she said.

"I think it's exciting in general. Any competition is good competition and if there's competition between sporting codes, they all have to up their game to support, nurture and build their athlete base and look after their players."

She said the lure of Olympics was a big factor in her pursuing rugby. The game's established efforts in supporting women helped.

"We've been professional since 2014, we were one of the first professional programs in Australian sport," she said.

"But most definitely, the chance to win a gold medal was a big drawcard for me. I think that's something that rugby has over most other sports - you get to travel around the world, play in a world series as well as Commonwealth Games, World Cups and Olympics as well. You get more bang for your buck!"

Wagga hosted Super W trials between the Melbourne Rebels and the Brumbies a month ago, the latter with a strong Southern Inland Rugby Union contingent in its ranks.

Last November, Football Wagga was thrilled to bring W-League clubs Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets to town for a pre-season fixture.

"The W-League was great. Both clubs said they'd love to come back and it was a great turnout," Football Wagga president Tony Dobbin said.

"We're still extremely strong in Mini-Roos, our infants and primary age group. That's been the boom in our sport. When you get to high school age, all sports get drop-off so we will have a keen eye on how we go there."

Football Wagga hopes to introduce an under 14 girls competition this year while the Wanderers program offers a path to higher levels, with girls and women's teams playing in the Canberra competition.

This week, the sport held another mini-Matildas gala day for around 1000 girls. It's a concept only a few years old that has grown astronomically in popularity. Former Matilda, Sally Shipard, was guest of honour at one and was blown away by the sight of hundreds of girls playing the game she loves.

Shipard grew up in Wagga loving many sports but knowing the choices were few. She made a brilliant career in soccer, representing Australia in 62 games, including two world cup campaigns, and won a W-League championship with Canberra.

Dobbin says bringing semi-professional teams and players - any elite sport - will drum home to today's generation that the world is their oyster.

"We've had women in our sport for decades but good on AFL and rugby and rugby league for opening it up too," Dobbin said.

"Bringing the W-League or women's AFL or anything like that to town, you're providing choice and opportunities for girls.

"It shows there's a pathway beyond community sport for those who want to pursue it. But you're also demonstrating a skill-set. Players, coaches, administrators, they can all see what clubs do - how they arrive, what they do at training, how they manage their players - and hopefully inspire a few to choose a pathway.

"So it's a great thing."

Football Wagga is in discussions to keep bringing W-League or A-League trials or competition games to the city.

Only a couple of years ago, cricket brought two Women's Big Bash League games here to Robertson Oval.

Southern Sports Academy chief executive Mark Calverley says the breadth of opportunities in women's sport will have widespread value.

"They get a broader skill set playing a range of sports," Calverley said.

"It's similar to the old 'Wagga effect' talked about for men - where traditionally males were playing a broad range of sports and getting a broad skill set and that was helping their sport down the track. Now we're seeing that with women's sport.

"Alicia Lucas is a perfect example of that."

Sports are offering the opportunities. The Academy's role is to help athletes on the path to success.

"We're now into year three of AFLW program and the athletes coming out of that are getting better and better," Calverley said.

"We are also seeing girls transition across from sports... from netball to the AFLW program and back the other way, or from rugby across to AFLW or to netball."

Calverley says competing sports still appear to have a collegiate rather than cut-throat approach.

"I find all together the sports are on the rise. It's not that one sport is getting more exposure than another, it's sport in the female space all together," Calverley said.

He says the value in being able to watch top-class athletes can't be underestimated. But talent and dreams will only take a player so far.

"Seeing a determination in kids to want to be better all the time, to improve from session to session," he says is one of the most important attributes of success.

"Also resilience and independence: where they can recover from setbacks; where they're not relying on coaches or parents to do everything for them. And learning what they can do to make themselves better.

"Role models are also important. For kids to see high level sport coming to the region provides those role models, and hopefully they can see themselves having that success down the track."

Calverley said the Academy's Australian rules program for women is proving one of its most popular.

Riverina Lions trailblazer Julie McLean isn't surprised. She can tell you that women playing footy isn't new. But acceptance and widespread interest is.

"It's amazing to finally see. Obviously women's footy has been in the region for sometime now and people are getting more used to seeing females play the game," McLean said.

"But to have the top level come to town will really make people see that there is a place for women and how good they are."

McLean was involved in setting up the Riverina Lions in 2003 and was the first women's player to pass 250 games in the AFL Canberra competition.

This year, she's come out of retirement to lead a new Narrandera team in an expanded AFL Southern NSW Women's competition.

The growth in the senior women's competition follows growth in the fledgling youth girls league, from 250 players towards 400 within a couple of years.

McLean says it's magic to sit back and watch it unfold.

"It's certainly different to when we first started the Riverina Lions in 2003, scratching to get a team and we worked and worked and worked," she said.

"Way back, there were people that thought, 'Nup, you shouldn't be playing, it'll never go ahead.' Now people stop you in the street to talk about the Lions or the AFLW.

"It's great, just to see the growth in the game, especially the last four or five years. I guess we could laugh that AFL were on the backburner a bit (compared to other sports) but it's great to see them in the spotlight.

"There are so many kids coming through pathways here, like (GWS Giants) Alyce Cooper (Holbrook) and Jodie Hicks (Hay), and Rebecca Miller (Wagga) at Richmond."

East Wagga-Kooringal women's coach Ken McPherson is excited about where women's football is headed, and the extravaganza at Robertson Oval.

"That's a massive weekend for AFL in general here in the Riverina," McPherson said.

"To have the AFLW girls here, to show people who haven't been watching it what the standard and the quality is. When you watch it live, it's a lot harder than what you might think it is on TV."

McPherson is watching the future unfold in front of him, after four of the Hawks' youth girls graduated to senior football this year.

He says the coaching has been rewarding - from watching talented netballers or basketballers come in and adapt to a new sport like they've always played, to seeing week-to-week and year-on-year development.

"I've enjoyed it. They really listen to you and actually do what you ask them to do," he said. That hasn't always been the case for men's teams he's coached.

"I'm enjoying it because of the reward you get in seeing the girls progress. From the first year to now, it's been outstanding."

McPherson says the Hawks' curtain-raiser against North Wagga shapes as a great exhibition of that improvement.

"You've got North Wagga coming into the comp, they're playing some really good football and their development is just phenomenal. There is excitement. It's probably the game of the season that everyone's looking forward to."

With junior girls involved in Auskick, some of the top local players in the AFL Southern NSW games and then the national women's league to top it off, Saturday will showcase just what's possible.

"Now, there's kids with stars in their eyes and they can come along next week and see what can be done," McLean said.

For some, there might even be a tear in the eye.

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