Bizarre US talk show segment highlights Aussie women's sport takeover

In less than five days Australian sports fans flicking on their tellies were treated to a momentous Matildas home farewell before the Paris Olympics, men's and women's State of Origin blockbusters, a national men's Twenty20 cricket match and a Socceroos friendly.

That was in addition to the regular major men's footy codes kicking off from Thursday night and running over the weekend.

It was the women who particularly dominated headlines though, so much so that Lydia Williams' last home game for the Matildas before she retires after the Olympics attracted the attention of American talk show host, Seth Myers.

On his program Late Night, Myers was interviewing comedic queen and actress Amy Poehler about her recent tour in Australia promoting Inside Out 2, when he brought up a moving video he'd watched of Williams presenting the No.1 jersey to the Matildas' current top glovewoman, Mackenzie Arnold.

It made Myers "sports cry".

Of all the things that Williams had experienced in an emotional week where she was lavishly celebrated for her extraordinary Matildas career, here was the cherry on top - the Katanning-born, Canberra-raised soccer legend becoming the subject of a playful discussion by celebrities on a popular television show on the other side of the world, watched by millions.

It shouldn't be so surprising when you realise the reach of the Matildas right now though.

Arguably the most popular Australian sporting team, they set a new record for a home Matildas crowd attendance with 76,798 packing out Homebush for a friendly against China - on a Monday night, no less - and reached 2.62 million on Ten's national broadcast, with an average audience of 1.095 million.

It was the biggest reach for a soccer broadcast for the network and the highest average Matildas match viewership since the Women's World Cup.

Then over in game two of Women's Origin, a record crowd attendance for women's rugby league was set in Newcastle as 25,782 sat in the pouring rain on Thursday night to watch a thrilling one-point win for Queensland that set up a decider in Townsville in three weeks.

The broadcast reach was only slightly less than the Matildas match too, with 2.217 million, and an average of 1.068 million tuning in to Nine, making it the highest-rating Women's Origin match of all time.

And along the way the captivating showdown was a perfect advertisement for women's rugby league, with many sports-lovers arguing on social media that it topped the Wednesday night Origin spectacular.

Furthermore, despite the close result, fans had nothing but respect for both sides and their hard-fought effort, which was hardly the case in the men's edition.

In terms of broadcast and attendance, those two women's sporting fixtures were beaten only by game one of men's Origin, but that iconic rugby league series has been a staple atop the Australian sporting calendar for decades, so it was to be expected.

For women's rugby league and soccer to beat out the Socceroos and Australian cricket team the way it did in a rich week of sport, though - this was significant.

The Socceroos' World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh (Paramount Plus) and the T20 international (Prime) were not even made available on free-to-air television, which did lead to some fan frustration being shared on social media.

From attendance, to viewership, to fan reception and sentiment, this was a week where women's sports dominated, and there was little indication of this being a one-off anomaly either.

Women's sport in Australia is on the rise in a big way, and it's exciting to see how much further it still has to go.