Women’s football in Australia hasn’t had the greatest year. The national team couldn’t get past the quarter finals of the World Cup, losing 3-1 to Sweden in a competition where they had been tipped to impress.

The Matildas then missed out on a trip to the London 2012 Olympics by the narrowest of margins. Going in their place will be a North Korea side who have been banned from competing in the 2015 World Cup following a doping scandal.

Funnily enough, no drug tests were taken during the Olympic qualification tournament and FIFA decided they would not extend the aforementioned ban to other competitions. While the Australian Olympic Committee and Football Federation Australia (FFA) are challenging the decision, it seems unlikely FIFA will change their minds.

To top things off, the U17 national side struggled at the AFC U16 Women’s Championships, finishing fifth in their group and therefore not qualifying for the U17 World Cup.

All these failures in quick succession could easily demoralise the sport and its administrators, just when it was building momentum. But thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom and this is primarily thanks to the success of the premier women’s competition in Australia, the W-League.

Established in 2008, the semi-professional W-League originally consisted of eight teams, although Central Coast Mariners had to pull out due to lack of funding earlier this year. The league system is similar to the A-League, with a finals system determining the champions once the regular season has been completed.

With the 2011/12 campaign five rounds in, Canberra United sit comfortably top of the table with 15 points. The only W-League team not to have an affiliated A-League team, Canberra is an extraordinary team full of inspiring players.

One of the most remarkable stories in the W-League, or indeed in football anywhere in the world, is that of Ellyse Perry. She’s only 21, but already the Sydney-born star has represented Australia in both cricket and football.

The Canberra United defender was the youngest Australian, male or female, to make their international cricket debut, and also scored a cracker in the Matildas’ loss to Sweden earlier this year.

To be a world class athlete in one competition is a great achievement, but to have represented your country in two different sports is simply amazing. And Perry certainly isn’t going to give up her dual role any time soon.

“To be honest I don’t know if I do need to choose [between the sports] at the moment. I’m tremendously lucky to have the support of both cricket and football and I’m still enjoying both. So as long as that’s the case I’d love to pursue both and keep playing both. For me it’s more about enjoying myself and the opportunities I have rather than thinking about a decision I may or may not have to make sometime in the future.”

Speaking to Matildas’ manager Tom Sermanni before the World Cup, the inspirational deeds of Perry and her team mates was something he stressed.

“It really is amazing. You look at the equivalent male players and they’ve got a career path set out, they play professional football, they move about from club to club, whereas these players do a whole multitude of things.

“They take risks and travel overseas to play for not a lot of money, they study, and they’ve got other careers. They do a whole lot of things. And the football commitment, which is just as big a commitment as the male professional players, they’re fitting that in among these other things.”

A team mate of Perry’s, Sally Shipard, is also making news in Australia for all the right reasons. In support of ‘Movember’, the midfielder decided to don a moustache and raise some money. Every day this month supporters get the chance to draw a permanent-marker mo on Shipard, in return for a donation to the charity behind the campaign.

While Shipard admits she has received a number of strange looks so far this month, the United star is dedicated to raising money for male heath awareness.

Perry and Shipard are just two of the many amazing and inspiring players in the W-League. Forced to overcome hurdles most male professional footballers would never dream of, these ladies are battling to improve the quality of their domestic competition and support grass roots football.

With the league rapidly improving, and traditional powerhouse teams like Sydney and Brisbane trailing a vibrant Canberra side, things are on the up. Only five rounds into the new season, the league has already received great crowd support and widespread acclaim in the social media world.

Although it’s not often the FFA receives praise, their work with the W-League must be commended. It may be still in its infancy, but the FFA have managed to create a sustainable competition with a degree of corporate and media backing, and this will benefit the development of the female game for years to come.

Women’s football in Australia might have had a bad year at the national team level, but at least the domestic competition is giving people something to smile about. Crowd numbers are on the rise, quality on the pitch continues to impress, and the W-League is quickly gaining pace in the competitive Australian sports market.

With players like Ellyse Perry and Sally Shipard, it’s hardly surprising.