Both enjoyed prime-time national television timeslots.

Flicking between the channels, it was difficult not to reflect on the ongoing progress of women's sport.

Our female sport stars may still be a far cry from the coverage or salaries of their male counterparts, but they have made huge strides.

When I first began reporting on a professional football club in the UK, there were complaints that the women's team were even afforded a page report in the match program for the men's team.

Admittedly, I'm rather old so this is going back a while, but at the time women's team sport was seen as little more than a novelty - a pleasant diversion until the men played.

Dinosaurs ruled the world and sexism was rife - in the pressbox as well as on the arena.

In the span of my working lifetime, it would be difficult to think of a realm which has experienced greater growth.

Women's sport is now not only prime time but box office.

The likes of Sam Kerr, Ellyse Perry, Ash Barty and Liz Cambage have become genuine superstars - gifted athletes, global marketing commodities and inspirations to the next generation of Australian sportswomen.

Kerr, Perry and Barty are also excellent role models.

The rise in broadcast and print coverage has gone hand-in-hand with skill development.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the WBBL.

A highlights reel of this season's competition thus far showed the sort of spectacular catches, innovative batting and subtle bowling variations pioneered and now commonplace in the men's competition.

The standard of batting, bowling and particularly fielding is almost unrecognisable to what it was just a few years ago.

The consequence of such improvement has been expanded coverage, with that comes more financial recompense and suddenly talented young female athletes can genuinely consider sport as a career rather than just a hobby.

Obviously, Australia has had plenty of exceptional and successful sportswomen in the past, but only recently have their earnings begun to match their ability.

At the peak of her powers, Lauren Jackson was the undisputed best female basketballer in the world - three times leading the scoring and three times named most valuable player in the planet's toughest league, the WNBA - but was earning a tiny fraction of male counterparts.

Now that the rewards are beginning to filter through, huge opportunities are available and Australia's best female athletes have been keen to explore as many as possible.

Just look at the number of AFLW players to have transitioned from other sports.

Collingwood's Sharni Norder (née Layton), Georgie Parker and Jess Duffin have represented Australia respectively in netball, hockey and cricket while Adelaide's two-time league best and fairest Erin Phillips won world championship, Olympic and Commonwealth Games basketball medals alongside Jackson.

Indeed, Phillips holds the unique distinction of being a two-time champion in both the WNBA (2012, 2014) and AFLW (2017, 2019).

Perry was the first Australian to appear in both cricket and soccer World Cups and was reportedly also head-hunted by Carlton in the AFLW. Earlier this month, she became the first Australian, man or woman, to reach 5000 runs and 300 wickets in the international arena.

Meanwhile Barty took a high-profile break from becoming world no.1 tennis player - with four Grand Slam titles in as many years - to play the inaugural WBBL season with Brisbane Heat.

There are also examples of men dabbling in more than one sport but, such are their superior financial rewards, these were usually prompted by either the need for a break (Michael Jordan's minor league baseball season), the chance to explore (Usain Bolt's two-goal debut for the Central Coast Mariners) or greed (Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt).

Now that competitions like the WNBL, WBBL, AFLW, Super Netball and the A-League Women (née the W-League) have become established, Australian girls have grown up knowing no different and aware that elite opportunities are available if they are good enough. One of them even has a Tasmania team.

In the last financial year, Barty won $13.7 million in prize money while sponsorships and endorsements took her total earnings to $17.8 million making her the third highest paid female athlete in the world. That's from tennis, not cricket.

Meanwhile, Sam Stosur's income from a 20-year tennis career is estimated at $28 million.

Perry's WBBL and national salary is about $300,000 a year but, with off-field bonuses, her net worth has been valued at more than $10 million.

Google "Liz Cambage" and, inevitably, two of the most popular searches are "height" and "salary". The former is 203cm, the latter a $221,450 contract with the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA.

Kerr's two-and-a-half-year contract with English big guns Chelsea has seen her become the first Australian female footballer to earn over $1 million.

However, that is what Cristiano Ronaldo earns in a week so the gender salary gulf remains about as wide as the one between Liverpool and Ronaldo's Manchester United as demonstrated by Monday morning's 5-0 humbling.