This weekend will see the culmination of the latest AFLW season, with the Adelaide Crows taking on the Melbourne Demons at Adelaide Oval whilst most people are getting ready for Saturday lunch.

They always say write what you know, so with my husband as Adelaide’s coach and a deep admiration for the athletes he mentors, the lead up to this week has been one full of nerves, excitement and disappointingly, dismay.

It’s funny to me that whenever a discussion about women’s football starts, people are normally divided into those that love the game and those that don’t see a value in it, nor sport in general.

I get that.

People grow up being exposed to different environments and being shaped by what’s around them, and later in life it’s often those moments that form the basis of how one chooses to interact with people and information.

Case in point; you were a kid who hated sport at school or maybe were even picked on by the idiot jocks, so why would you have or choose to find common ground now.

Of course, it’s not to say change can’t happen, but I wonder if that change seems slower these days when everyone can round up a group of validating thinkers at the press of a keyboard button.

The algorithm on Facebook says so, therefore I am.

The people who really disappoint and dismay me though are those that can and should do better, but manage to cock things up royally.

The interesting thing with women’s footy is that the change has been forced on us relatively quickly.

I say that with the caveat that there has been football played by women in this country for over a hundred years.

There have been countless women (and men) toiling away, volunteering at games and clubs, but chances are you just hadn’t seen them.

Fast forward to February 3, 2017 and the AFLW starts shoving this next generation firmly onto centre stage. Now, just over five years later, there are 600,000 women and girls playing football around the country.

And this is where I come to the one division I struggle to understand.

It’s when those who love the game splinter into groups; those who still think women shouldn’t pick up a ball, and those who don’t.

A lot of this first group can be found in the usual hangouts of the comments section on footy forums, talkback radio or less reputable news sites.

Of course these people can have their voice, but when you’re sitting in a room spitting venom behind an anonymous handle, I have to believe that says more about you than the people you’re attacking.

In the end though, the people who really disappoint and dismay me though are those that can and should do better, but manage to cock things up royally.

Like the AFL(W) itself.

There has been much patting of own backs with the decision to run the women’s Grand Final as a stand-alone event, not up against any men’s AFL matches.

I’m sorry, but whoop-dee-doo.

That should be a no-brainer.

That should be a minimum standard.

It shouldn’t be something celebrated as they move the match forward to midday, stopping many families from getting there thanks to kids’ sport/dance/etc, which will also see these athletes playing in the middle of a 27 degree day.

It’s when a commentator from the host broadcaster calls two players as sisters, when instead they are wives.

It’s when a young player will miss the Grand Final on a suspension based solely on the potential for injury, when if the same result was handed down in the men’s game, people would start storming AFL House.

The Crows’ Montana McKinnon and Ebony Antonio of the Dockers fly for a mark during the AFLW Preliminary Final at Adelaide Oval on April 2. McKinnon will miss Saturday’s Grand Final after receiving a one game suspension for rough conduct. Photo: AAP/Matt Turner

It’s when a feature speaker of the W Awards (think AFLW Brownlow) talks about two men’s moments as the highlights of the year and then relegates one of the great female players as the object of his crush.

It’s when a national TV show chooses to do a story on the disparity between women and men’s sport, yet calls a national women’s team by the wrong name.

Of course mistakes can happen, but when it’s the well-resourced, well-educated advocates and leagues that stuff up, even the good they do can be written off as virtue signalling.

As is often said, the devil is in the detail and while there was forgiveness in the massive crush of women and people joining in early, now it’s time to get things right.

I could be wrong, but I think I know what will happen Saturday.

One side will win and one will lose, but they’ll do so in front of a much smaller crowd than the lauded 53,000 who turned up a few years ago.

The narrative in some circles will then become women’s footy and women’s sport is on the slide and the old arguments of pay, charging entry and worth will reappear.

The fact that all teams beat their membership records this season, the nuances of Covid fear effecting most events across the country and the sheer joy of inclusion will risk being lost.

Then that one group – those that love footy but not the women playing it – will feel vindicated and another avalanche of ‘why should they’ will start.

Well, as someone who loved playing all sport and who enjoys seeing kids – mine and others – just have a go, that’s exactly why they should.

It’s also exactly why we need to demand more of those taking credit for leading and promoting this moment in time.

Ali Clarke presents the breakfast show on Mix 102.3. She is a regular columnist for InDaily.