Andy Howley introduced Australian rules football to Bathurst and Melville islands in 1941.

In 1944, the first games consisting of a full complement of 18 players and matches according to the rule book were played.

Within a couple of decades, the major Australian leagues began to take an interest with the first player offered a contract being Joe Saturninas in 1955.

[3] In the 1960s, the most talented export of the TIFL, ruckman David Kantilla had a successful career first in the NTFL, and then reached its peak when he later became a leading player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) with South Adelaide Football Club, where he was a member of the 1964 premiership team, and won the best and fairest and leading goal kicking awards at the club.

From 1980 to 1981, Tiwi Islander Maurice Rioli won two Simpson Medals for Western Australian Football League (WAFL) club South Fremantle as best player in WAFL Grand Finals before his recruitment by Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1982, where he won the Norm Smith Medal for the best player in the 1982 VFL Grand Final.