GOOD TO SEE THE GAME GET BACK TO NORMAL

IT has been a long, dramatic and winding road over the past couple of years, but finally we’re seeing some signs that normality is returning. The Tiwi Islands Football League grand final on Saturday welcomed back thousands of spectators, a far cry from the past two years when travel was very much restricted.

As the NT News’ sporting immortal Grey Morris wrote, “Australian football on the Tiwi Islands is alive and well”.

But even more encouragingly, it is a brilliant sign that our dry season is officially under way, and not a moment too soon.

It sets up our vital industries to prove they too are alive and well.

Over coming months, the Territory will hopefully come alive in a way we have not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Major drawcards such as the Darwin Festival and BASSINTHEGRASS are around the corner, and are set to draw in visitors (and their wallets) from around the country.

Tourism operators will be hoping the Tiwi Islands game will be the start of a blockbuster six months, now interstate and international travellers are free to roam across the Top End and Central Australia.

And let us be honest – it has been a horrid two years for them especially, beset by labour shortages, border lockdowns and a complete shutdown of international travel.

The recovery from the depths of the pandemic is still set to last three to five years, and there are still many hospitality venues out there struggling to find enough workers to fully staff their operations.

But operators will be eager to make up for lost time. Simultaneously, the Tiwi Islands football game comes at the same time AFLNT is pushing federal leaders to invest in facilities in remote communities. One can only look at the numerous footy stars who have emerged from remote Australia to know there is so much potential waiting to be unlocked, if only these communities had proper facilities.

It would require investment in proper changerooms, better fields and clean drinking water, and would be expensive for whichever government decides to bankroll it.

But the legacy of such a decision will be better health outcomes and all the social benefits that sport provides to young people.

Whether it is football fields or our tourism industry, when people in the future ask when the Territory’s resurgence began, hopefully it can be said that it started on a football field on the Tiwi Islands in 2022.