The demise of the Melbourne Rebels will not be the last Australian sports franchise to go under as national interest shrinks into a narrower number of sports. 

Australia has always had one of the most congested sporting markets despite the fact that our tyranny of distance separating the main cities is compounded by a small population on the global scale.

It should not be financially feasible for so many sporting clubs and leagues to be viable.

And for the most part, it’s not.

The end of the Rebels alliance is a symptom of the national sporting psyche getting a taste of a wide range of sports and then basically deciding to stick with the main three which have pretty much always held sway – cricket, Aussie rules and rugby league. 

And the rise in interest in women’s sport is a major reason why rival codes which used to have a seat at the big table are now being pushed to the periphery. 

There used to be a distinct big four in the football codes with the AFL and NRL previously facing stiff competition for interest, sponsors and TV deals from their rival codes of rugby and soccer. 

But now soccer and rugby are mostly not only banished from free-to-air TV, you need a variety of apps or streaming services to keep up to date. 

Diehards remain, casual fans have lost interest.

The Big Three of Cricket Australia, the NRL and the AFL have increased their viewership, sponsors and overall interest levels by expanding by stealth, consolidating their market share without needing to try risky new ventures away from their heartland areas. 

They have generated a lot more content that their fans know and love, it just so happens that they’ve added a W to their acronym.

This investment in women’s sport has strengthened their already dominant positions with the WBBL, NRLW and AFLW pulling in ratings figures that make the other sports green with envy. It is the ultimate revenge for women’s sport after decades of being cast aside.

Sponsors notice this rise in interest too, particularly the corporates who want sports stars to endorse their products without any concern that they will end up in the headlines for the wrong reasons. 

And the Big Three have been smart by co-branding the NRL, AFL and BBL franchises, making them part of the same club rather than separate entities which hampers a sport like basketball that has distinct identities for their men’s and women’s teams. Even though it’s somewhat odd if you think too much about it that there are NRLW sides called the Cowboys and Roosters. 

Drilling down even further it means that if a fan is loyal to their chosen sport, they can now also watch more of their favourite team in each competition either side of the gender divide – well, you can in cricket and AFL, but the NRL still has a few more women’s teams to add before their competitions have parity. 

Soccer more or less has the same set-up but, along with rugby, their overall impact is no longer causing AFL and NRL executives to glance over their shoulder as they did a decade-plus ago.  

Rugby union and soccer have taken major steps back over the past 15 years in terms of interest while other sports more used to being on the second tier like basketball and netball have retained their core supporter base which is devoted but not in the same league as the major sports in the key commercial metrics despite enviable participation numbers, especially at the junior levels. 

All is not lost for rugby despite the Rebels being run out of Melbourne with a British and Irish Lions tour and the men’s and women’s World Cups on the hosting horizon.

And soccer dodged a bullet on Tuesday with the Newcastle Jets’ licence finally being snapped up by new ownership. 

Both sports can weather the ongoing storm but the gap is widening between them and Australia’s Big Three.

The shining light for soccer is the rise of the Matildas. 

Last week’s men’s State of Origin match struggled to sell out but all the tickets for the Matildas vs China friendly two nights earlier at the same venue were snapped up weeks in advance. 

Sure, the cost of a seat at Origin was much higher but it was a timely blow for the code which has also invested big time in female participation and engagement from the grassroots to the elite level.

Walking to the stadium last week there was a buzz throughout the precinct. You would walk past a merchandising caravan with lines filled with eager Matildas supporters from all walks of life, with a high proportion of young female fans thrilled to see their idols in the flesh.

And then there was another merch shop with the same crowded yet orderly scene. 

And another one. 

There was another win for women’s sport when the women’s State of Origin match drew a crowd of 25,492 fans despite pouring rain at the stadium which is a long way from being fully undercover.

That was 3000 more than the Knights’ NRL attendance for the season and around 7000 higher than their average crowd figure.

Investing in women’s sport should not even need to be an “action item” for sports, it should just be the way it is.

And all Australian sports should be commended for the way they have embraced the revolution over the past decade or more.

The reality is that only the strongest sports and clubs will keep their heads above water and there is a finite number of fans to go around in order to keep them viable.

And with professional women’s leagues and teams like the Matildas, Jillaroos and all-conquering cricket team now firmly embedded in the national sporting landscape, if a team like the Rebels is not financially sustainable, the simple fact of the matter is they will not survive.