Given she was playing and training for both well enough to go to world cups in both, I doubt very much she is overly concerned about the rigours of Matildas training.  It is true that while she is a very good footballer, she is not one of the worlds best, but she is one of the worlds best cricketers.

Also, the fact that cricket is a bigger payday may figure more than being an easier payday.

2013......but

Who is the most marketable athlete in Australian sport?

Tim Cahill? Michael Clarke? Greg Inglis? Quade Cooper?   

Nope. 

  

 Ellyse Perry. 

  

The 22-year-old dual international has been ranked the 36th most marketable sportsperson in the world by magazine SportsPro, in an annual rankings released in conjunction with Eurosport.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/neymar-is-the-worlds-most-marketable-sportsman-ellyse-perry-the-most-marketable-australian-athlete/story-e6frf423-1226642070622#.UfZUhqwcv80

Polkinghorne admits it has been a tough time for the semi-professional players, who haven’t been getting paid because the club won’t honour the contracts they signed and the new deals remain unsigned.

Ellyse Perry says new women's sport leagues in Australia will benefit female athletes across codes

Updated Tue at 6:55am

Women's sport is booming across the nation, but dual international Ellyse Perry cannot see a code war breaking out any time soon, at least when it comes to Australia's cricket talent.

Perry was one many of Southern Stars to take part in the inaugural Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) season last summer, which featured impressive TV ratings and attendance figures.

This year has also featured the creation of a new national netball league, which came with an improved pay deal for players, and a draft for the new women's AFL competition that starts in 2017.

Cricketers Jess Cameron, Delissa Kimmince, Emma Kearney and Kirsty Lamb were all recruited by AFL clubs but will spend the summer with their respective WBBL sides.

Perry, who has represented her country in cricket and football but played much more of the former in recent years, knows how hard it is to juggle two major sporting commitments.

The all-rounder said only good things would come from the women's AFL competition.

"It's wonderful for them. It just gives them more exposure to elite sport. I'm sure they'll bring things back to cricket from their experiences with AFL and vice versa," Perry said.

"There's a real collaboration aspect to it as well. It just makes better athletes.

"There's a number of positives to the amount of opportunity female athletes are getting in Australia now ... and the amount of support they're getting from sporting organisations.

"Whether it's Cricket Australia, the women's AFL, rugby, tennis, netball, soccer — there's so much of it now and I think the crux of it is it's about providing opportunity to females to play their chosen sports."

The more dual-code athletes the better: CA chief

No AFL club attempted to add a third sport to Perry's crowded schedule, with the 25-year-old joking they must have already had a "pretty clear idea" of her skills with the Sherrin.

"They must have seen me play our Southern Stars hybrid game we have in the warm-up," she said.

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland rejected the idea his sport would suffer at the hands of the two-month women's AFL season that starts in February.

"Cricket is Australia's national sport and we've got a great history of representation in the game and what else could you want as an aspiring girl than to represent your country," Sutherland said.

"Why would I be worried about the AFL?

"We actually don't see the competitive nature of it. We see at the moment the landscape is such that girls and women can choose to play more than one sport.

"That's a good thing and should continue."

There is an element of `a rising tide lifts all ships` about this.  Normalising womens sport on television makes womens sport in general easier to sell.  You start to get a benchmark of what can be achieved, and what it is worth.  

Also, the AFL womens comp, when it starts to move season, as it will, will move deeper towards winter, and away from summer.  It will be significantly easier to be a dual AFL/W-league player, or AFL/WBBL player than a WBBL/W-League player.

I think the sports will co exist pretty comfortably, at least for a while.

Saw this on Eltham Redbacks FB page about Lauren Brazzale being signed by new women's AFL club Carlton. 'Massive CONGRATS to Lauren Brazzale, Eltham Redback since the dawn of time, for being drafted into that other other football code that we all know and love - the AFL! We don't know how long Brazzale played for the Redbacks, but it was 12 years or 14 years or maybe longer. It was a long time. We're rapt to see her having success at such a high level, and we will enjoy watching her play as much, no doubt. She will play for Carlton Blues in 2017. Good luck, Brazzale!'

So womens VFL is just like the male version, pick someone from another sport, train them for a month and then they are playing the "sport" at the highest level in the world, i.e. Melbourne.

Roar players had to make stand over W-League pay dispute, says Polkinghorne

Brisbane W-League captain Clare Polkinghorne insists it was important players made a stand during last month’s contract dispute but admits none ever considered walking out on the club.

More than a dozen Roar players, including Polkinghorne, were asked to take pay cuts on increased deals they signed under former managing director Daniel Cobb just days before he was sacked in August.

Within a week the impasse was resolved, with players’ union Professional Footballers Australia stating current managing director Mark Kingsman had honoured the original contracts.

It was important (to make a stand), but we also knew the club wanted the best for us,” Polkinghorne told AAP.

“We wanted to do the right thing by the club too and we did work together.“

All the players were all the same page which was really important, and we had pretty open and honest discussions amongst the group and with the club.“Everyone was pretty confident things would turn out well.

The issue came at a critical juncture in the women’s game, with a new pay deal confirming all W-League players will receive remuneration for the first time this season.

Polkinghorne felt recent wage improvements in netball and cricket would help push football to further close the gap between salaries of female players and their male counterparts.“The other codes are putting more pressure on, which is good,” she said.“We really need to step up and continue to grow the W-League and compete with the other codes, because it’s important for women’s sport in general that all the codes are doing well and gaining interest.“The better other codes are doing, the better we can do as well.”

In terms of who pays the most in the W-League it's:

1. Melbourne City
2. Brisbane Roar
3. Daylight
4. A whole bunch of clubs paying $50k
5. At least one club that takes the $50k from the FFA, pockets half, and passes the other half on to run the women's team.

Irrespective of what other codes do or don't do it's obvious that the W League isn't paying enough to its players. $150k divided 20 ways is still only $7,500 each. A major pay rise is due next year.

That's quite an accusation.

It'd be a headline grabbing scandal, if it had even a little basis in truth.

@ paladiscious

That wasn't really my point. Even at $150k we are scandalous underpaying our women footballers - that's the scandal surely?

If any club is taking the money and halving it this season (I don't know if they are) but it has been done in the past and any of the current players playing today will be able to tell you what individual club pay policy has been.

Which doesn't reflect badly on any one club rather the general and accepted approach to women's soccer which is, to all intents and purposes, they are amateur level wages in some cases not even covering costs.

The emergence of the other codes, mainly cricket and AFL but Netball as well, has merely raised the bar which is a good thing. Hopefully the new tv deal provides sufficient cash to raise wages because, even if you play for Melb City, they are too low.

It's Waz.  Best wait for 2nd source

Now THATS quite an accusation coming from you lookatmooy lol. The only source you have comes in a bottle 😂

I don't make factual claims, have no source, then change my tune.  That's your trademark.

@ lookatmooy

Awwwww thats just BS, it might hurt if I respected your opinion 😂 You're just salty cos I call you out for trolling every now and again.

Go on, I'll even let you have the last word on this if it makes you feel better ...

Nah, I'll give you the chance to have the last word

Give us the source for the team that took $50k from the FFA for W-League wages and pocketed half of it.

I think yourself and Waz don't quite understand the deal between the FFA and the AL/W-League clubs? The FFA pay for all travel incurred in the competition and in addition provide a 50,000 dollar grant to each participating A League club plus Canberra to wards the cost of running the ladies team. This $50,000 is not, I emphasise is NOT, a salary cap type payment as in the mens league intended for player wages and instead goes to cover all related costs including players expenses, coaches, insurance, training facilities, kit, gym membership, medical expenses etc, other travel and out-of-pocket expenses. Some A League clubs outsource the operation of their W-League teams and are affiliated in name only, they still do receive the $50,000 FFA grant which they pass on to the body running the team, but first they will typically they will take out other costs which include things like insurance and medical which often comes under the master franchise arrangement, and costs for training ground access, and for the playing kit which is produced under the same colors as the mens team normally as part of the same kit deal. the end result is $50,000 is not the amount given to some teams to operate their teams on but far from being a scandal this is the reality on just how this small grant ends up getting split. There are some W-League teams that have not paid any players in a season, other than basic expenses. this is not a scandal it is the reality of a semi-professional cum amateur level league, the NPL is similar so its not even a gender thing. I coach on the Sunshine Coast, typically boys/girls to U18 and have had the pleasure of working with several Matilda's who continue to give their time freely and willingly for the sport they love, it is certainly not for the money

Women's AFL pay deal gets tick of approval from players association

Updated 8 minutes ago

The AFL has finalised a pay deal for the first two years of the women's league, with the players association applauding its arrival.

In year one, marquee players will be paid $27,000, the next tier of players will receive $12,000 and the remaining listed players will be paid $8,500.

All three tiers will rise in the second year.

While the numbers are significantly lower than those in the men's game — where the average salary exceeds $300,000 — AFL Players Association (AFLPA) chief executive Paul Marsh said the deal was a big step forward.

"This has been about trying to get to a position where the female players are considered and looked after equal to the men's," he said.

"We have to realise the season they'll be playing in will be considerably shorter than what the men have and it is a part-time occupation, so they'll only be working nine hours a week."

The AFLPA had rejected the league's initial offer, arguing the $5,000 minimum wage was too low.

But Marsh said the new deal, which signifies an increase of about $750,000 from the initial offer, received widespread support from the vast majority of the playing group.

"We took it to them for a vote I think it was Monday of this week and more than 90 per cent of the players actually voted and more than 90 per cent voted to accept it," he said.

"So we're happy because our players are happy."

The AFL had been ridiculed on social media for its unwillingness to provide boots for the players and, accordingly, the new deal rectified the issue.

The new deal also ensures female players receive a travel allowance when playing interstate, income protection insurance, coverage for out-of-pocket medical expenses and an allowance to pay for a carer for a child under 12 months.

The eight-week competition will start in February.

Sounds like there'll be quite a crowd for the first game at least

2 hours before kickoff

The thing is a lot of the players came from legends football, legends league, lingerie football league

That didnt last long

Apparently it's been locked out, thousands turned away at the gate, that's staggering.

some thing about this game certainly pulls the people in but it will always be a provincial game and i cannot explain the reasoning or logic behind either statement 

The AFL have one of the best PR spin machines going around in the country and are very good at what they do.

The publicity sorrounding tonight's game has been all the rage all week, you almost couldn't not know about it.

Compare that to a regular A League game in this city...

Free entry also helps

AFL is so fortunate in Victoria having every radio and TV station as well as the print media continually promoting the women's game all week long in the lead up to the first game. Football which has so much more to offer will never be so lucky.

Exactly. All games are free entry unless they are a curtain raiser for the blokes. Not kids free... EVERYONE free

Compare that to the match at Perth Oval this weekend... GA from $6 to $28... up to $75 in the grandstand.

Get ready for the celebration in the media when WAFL reaches the next milestone of charging someone to watch it It'll no doubt be celebrated as the first time it ever happened in world history.

thought the game was between carlton and collingwood, not footscray and geelong.

it be interesting how long the "spectacle" lasts

Free entry or not you still have to get people through the gates, to get 24,500 packed in there and turn away thousands is ridiculous.

You could throw open the gates to every w league game this season and the total aggregate figure wouldn't reach the crowd they got to princes park tonight.

The standard was pretty average, but the channel 7 production and hype was top notch, already made these girls famous one night in.

Not that I dont see your point, but W-league attendances are almost 70,000 this season...at an average of 1,356

Any player who would play Rugby or a Rugby hybrid instead of the beautiful game because of the money should do so now......it is no different to Australian men's sport.