Arms and fists rise high above, some point fingers to the skies too, flags and streamers flutter in the breeze and fathers hug children in jubilation of the final siren sounding.
That very celebration of a grand final on the Tiwi Islands was again a sight to behold.
This tense one was no different to most in the past, fitting of a well-worn cliché, cried out from the MCG to even Wurrumiyanga that the two best teams of the year could hardly be separated on the day.
In their first Tiwi Islands Football League decider together since 1976, Tuya Buffaloes held on to win 10.10 70 to 10.3 63 over Pumarali Thunder & Lighting.
It was the club's first premiership victory since claiming the 2015 grand final while its rivals had been hoping to end an 18-year TIFL drought on Sunday.
Tuyu only came over the top of Pumarali in the final quarter after trailing for much of the contest since before quarter-time.
The Buffaloes finally hit the front again at the eight-minute mark, but after Thunder & Lightning just minutes later deep in the pocket snapped a reply, the sealer came after a handball over the top of the goal square with less than two minutes left on the clock.
The spectacle of the biggest day on the Top End calendar proved again unmatched for not only a single game of Australian rules, but for exhibiting the unique culture of the Bathurst and Melville Islands in a modern-day ritual that lives in the Tiwi blood.
The Tiwi Islands has the highest regional participation rate of the game of anywhere in Australia.
The AFL have recorded that an unparalleled 35 per cent of its population of 2600 play this distinctive brand of football.
That number by chance was close to the spectators attending that lined the boundary fence in their team's colours.
The surge of Buffaloes spectators, adorned in predominantly royal blue, flooded the oval in a mix of feelings from the height of ecstasy to just a final sense of relief.
That's easy enough to understand after their last meeting.
Tuyu scrapped to a 9.7 61 to 8.9 57 semi-final victory against Pumarali to advance into the grand final first.
The winners on Sunday also earned bragging rights in the tight-knit Tiwi community, squaring up the number of premierships to seven each since the once-named Nguilla Football League began in 1969.
Both are a long way behind the 17 flags of Imalu Tigers over a dominant four decades.
Last year was the first grand final to be played in the dry season after the league was forced to cancel seasons during the previous two years as a result of tight restrictions on communities from the pandemic.
That was played in May in cooler conditions to much acclaim from supporters, before this year's was changed again to later in August.
The switch from a wet season in almost certain torrential downpours to a dry season that was under clear skies arguably has also changed the style and pace of the game.
Nearly every season since 1969, Tiwi grand finals have been staged in March that has preceded the Northern Territory Football League decider.
The Tiwi Island grand final was also the first since the father of Willie Rioli jnr passed away just over a year earlier.
