Tiwi Islands grand final

A few weeks ago three mates from Katherine and I went to the Tiwi Islands, 40 kilometres north of Darwin.

They have a local footy competition there, and every year the grand final is a bit of a social event, with a few thousand people flying in to watch the game.

There's also some interesting indigenous art centres on the islands, and so it's a great day.

We were up in Darwin anyway because the Waifs were playing, and so it was just a quick flight - the captain advised our flight time was 12 minutes - to the Tiwis.

We had a bit of a wonder around and went to the main art centre. This is the channel between the two islands that make up the Tiwis - Bathurst and Melville. The water was a beautiful colour and so inviting, it was a very hot day. But there was a big sign up right next to me warning me I would almost certainly die should I try to cool off.

Before the footy a women's choir sang a few tunes, and then did the national anthem, first in the native Tiwi language then in English. They were pretty good!

It was pretty obvious how closely the community follows their teams. Everyone ran onto the field with them and did a lap! It was pretty funny!!

The game itself was a bit lopsided towards the end and quite physical, but good fun to watch.

In the end the team I was barracking for, the Eagles, went down to the hometown favourites the Tigers. There's always next year fellas...