Dissapointing to see such low crowds for the girls. Are fans just not as passionate?
Will it take 20, 30 years for it to really start seeing differences?
Besides what was already mentioned (Olympics, timeslots, etc), I think NRLW is still a hard sell to a lot of rusted on league fans. It's pretty cheap to attend but it's still another time and $$ commitment for those who watch NRL religiously. I watch my team play in NRL/NRLW every weekend, and then the other 7 NRL games almost every weekend, so watching any NRLW outside my own team is pushing it.
I attend all the NRLW games that are double-headers for the Knights and I've attended a couple of standalone ones, but it's easy for me being a single dude living a 10 - 15 minute walk from the stadium. Still, the 4,000 odd crowd for the Knights opener was a little disappointing given it's our only standalone game, B2B Premiers & playing one of the best teams. The only real issue was it was Thursday night. We did pretty well for the home final last year though.
All that being said, the crowds will keep growing, it'll just take time.