Why can't the NPL and NPLW have equal pay?

Heidelberg United are NPL powerhouses in the men's game, but their dedication to their NPLW side has been more than notable.

This is a club that Melissa Barbieri chose to come and join, and spoke extremely highly of, throughout her Matildas and W-League career.

The glue that keeps the Warriors so closely moulded together, Tyrikos - now head of women's football, but formerly the club's general manager - is now switching focus to campaigning for women's equality on the national stage.

She has a precedent.

English Isthmian League club Lewes FC broke new ground in 2017 when they instated club-wide equal pay, facilities and treatment across their male and female clubs.

Tyrikos believes a similar approach is crucial to the development of female football in Australia.

"I started in the men's game and I saw the inequities and I decided that I needed to do something about it because I have a daughter that plays," she told the ABC.

"She's 16 and she's a goalkeeper and I've seen it through her eyes, the injustice.

"How do you tell your daughter that even if she shows the same skills, the same commitment, trains just as hard and cares just as much, she's always going to be valued less than her little brother?"

So why can't NPL clubs follow the suit of Lewes? The NPLW is regulated as an amateur competition, which prevents clubs reimbursing players over $100 per week and charging administration costs.

Tyrikos says the amount of money NPL clubs spend on their male programs could be spent on facilities that herald a new era for football in Australia.

"It becomes a monster and keeps growing and growing, and you're spending so much money on (men's) wages, and you look back after 10 years and you go, that money could have been invested in the facilities, in growing the game for the juniors," she said.

"It's about changing perception and it's our opportunity to reset and go, 'hey, why are we spending (10 times more) a year on senior men when we're getting 800 people to a game, when years ago we used to get 15,000 people?'

"We've got to change, we've got to stop doing things the way we were doing them."