With 10 minutes to go in the men’s game, there were only four points in it.

On the sidelines, fans clad in blue and yellow were screaming for the Ranku Eagles, while a sea of black and white was there for the Muluwurri Magpies.

Among the throng, leaning on the fence and not wearing either club’s colours, were Beryl and Norman Tipuamantumirri.

Their team wasn’t in the final, but Beryl was biting her nails as she watched on.

Who were they going for?

“Both teams,” Norman said. “We go for everyone.”

This is the football-mad, close-knit Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, where Aussie Rules is like a religion and almost everyone is in the congregation.

“Eagles look good,” Beryl said. “But maybe Magpies can come from behind.”

They didn’t.

After three fiercely fought quarters, the Eagles got away in the fourth, triumphing over the Magpies 8.12 (60) to 6.11 (47).

The blue-and-yellow flooded the field and the cup was lifted high for the new men’s premiers of the Tiwi Islands Football League.

Eagles coach Brian Tipungwuti said he was never in any doubt.

“I knew we were going to take it out,” he said amid the post-match, on-field celebrations.

Gracious in defeat, Magpies’ player Edward Darcy Junior commended the rivals on “absolutely a tough game.”

“Big oval, hot sun, lots of running – amazing game,” he said of the match.

In the women’s game played earlier in the day, things were nowhere near as close.

The Tapalinga Superstars outshone the Muluwurri Magpies, winning 65-21.

It was a grand final rematch, but nothing like the end of last year’s inaugural women’s season, when the Magpies snatched victory by just one point.

For Tapalinga captain Kimberley Cunningham, 27, the weekend’s win fulfilled a promise she made to herself after last year’s loss — a game played the day after her grandmother — the mother of her mother, the team’s coach – passed away.

“I told myself ‘this year, I’m just going to give it everything’,” she said.

“And in the last five minutes I was already crying [about the win].

“We recovered and came back, and came back strong.”

The new women’s league is so popular on the islands, Cunningham’s only regret is that 10 reserve players on her team didn’t get the chance to play.

“We were only allowed to play 22 girls, and there are 30-plus girls in our team,” she said.

“But they all get a medal too, after the game.”

Off the field, there were far fewer tourists watching on this year from scant patches of shade around the oval, with locals well outnumbering visitors.

For the second year in a row, the grand final games were held in mid-August, the peak of Darwin’s busy dry season.

The weekend has previously been a double-bill tourist drawcard of football festival and art fair, with the island’s art centres doing the year’s best trade from visitors making a special trip from Darwin or down south.

But the timing this year meant the finals weekend clashed with the popular Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, which stopped many interstate visitors from making the trip across the water.

After a few weeks’ rest, the focus for fans, players and organisers will next turn to the territory-wide Northern Territory Football League competition, which runs over the southern off-season.