PIES TAME TIGERS TO RULE TIWIS
MULUWURRI completed a season for the ages in Tiwi Islands football when it defeated hot favourite Imalu by 28 points in Saturday’s grand final.
Six-goal Magpie forward Stanley Tipiloura won the Brother Pye Medal as the best player on the ground in his team’s win.
First-year coach Austin Wonaeamirri, the former Melbourne and Tiwi Bombers forward, was the toast of Magpieland after guiding his side to their fourth flag in league history.
“It’s been five years since we’ve won a flag and 15 years since we met them in a grand final, so credit to the boys for the way they got together and produced the hard work we needed to win the game,’’ Wonaeamirri said.
“At three-quarter time when we were down (by two points) I tried to use some speeches from the few coaches that I had as a player.
“It was all about us in that last quarter, because it was a tight run to the wire, what we can do with the footy, pushing through and doing what we had to do to win the game.’’
Muluwurri came from the first semi-final to win the flag, defeating Tuyu by two points in the first final, Tapalinga by the same margin in the preliminary final and Imalu in the decider. The Magpies were the only side to overcome Imalu all year, winning both home and away games and the grand final.
The game had all the traits associated with 52 years of Tiwi Islands football, the pacy breakaways, superb foot passing and high marking that have fascinated the game’s purists since the first grand final was played in 1970.
The lead changed five times, Tipiloura and Imalu defender Ronaldo Puruntatameri were sensational all day and the crowd’s volume increased with every minute the game was played. Thrill-a-minute Imalu forward Tristan Lippo set the crowd alight with his big array of skills in the first half, only some narrow misses preventing a five-goal haul by the main break.
Inaccuracy cost Imalu the lead in the first half, its 3.7 wiped out by two late goals from Magpies Billy Huddleston and Tipiloura.
Three unanswered goals by the Magpies in the early minutes of the third quarter shot Muluwurri out to a big lead, but the Tigers responded with goals to Lippo, Jonus Babui and the league’s leading goalkicker Dale Cunningham.
The David Kantilla medallist would have had four goals by the last change except for a spectacular smother by Magpie veteran Paddy Heenan in the second quarter when his Magpies grabbed a narrow lead.
Tapalinga Superstars midfielder Dwayne Kerinaiua was presented with the prestigious Ted Whitten Medal pre-game as the best and fairest player through the 2021-22 TIFL season.
At only 16, TIFL officials rate the midfielder-forward as one of the Tiwi Islands’ brightest prospects after playing a handful of games with the Tiwi Bombers and Waratah’s reserves side.
MULUWURRI 2.0 4.2 7.3 13.4 (82) IMALU 2.1 3.7 6.11 7.12 (54)
GOALS:
Muluwurri: S Tipiloura 6 R Farmer 2 S Lorenzo 2 B Huddleston B Mungatopi. Imalu: D Cunnungham 4 T Lippo 2 J Babui.
BEST:
Muluwurri: S Tipiloura S Lorenzo J Puruntatameri B Huddleston B Ullungura.
Imalu: R Puruntatameri D Cunningham M Dunn P Dunn J Babui.