"Forget the glass slippers, our princesses wear netball shoes!"
This was one slogan on show from Tongan fans who formed a sea of red in the grandstand as their national netball team took down the Malawi "Queens" to win the PacificAus Sports Netball Series last weekend.
It was a royal upset for the number six-ranked Queens who are graded just above the Tongans on the World Netball ladder.
But the Tonga Tala were determined to continue their remarkable rise and took home their third PacificAus Sports Series trophy with a confident 54-41 win over the African nation.
Tonga's performance will likely see them leapfrog over Malawi in the rankings with the Netball World Cup in South Africa just months away.
The Kingdom of Tonga's netball team are carving out a story of mythological proportions.
In the Greek tale of the phoenix, the bird obtains new life by rising from the ashes of its predecessor.
The Tonga Tala, whose namesake is a pure white sea bird, has regenerated and rebirthed Tonga's national netball team from non-existent, to obscurity, to its current cult-like status.
And they did all this in less than 18 months.
In 2018, Tonga were ranked 42nd in the world, and last year, prior to the first PacificAus Sports Netball series, they had no ranking at all.
Now Tonga is on track for a top-six place on the World Netball ladder, among a sextet of netball nations: Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, and South Africa.
Last week's PacificAus Sports series played on the Gold Coast was the Tala's greatest test yet because of the chance to meet similarly ranked Malawi.
It was also the first time Tonga had experienced different playing styles from African teams Zambia and Kenya.
Along with Tonga, the series also gave Fiji a World Cup preview.
Fiji is the only other Pacific island nation who qualified.
The Fiji Pearls finished fourth after losing to Zambia 55-56 in the play-offs.
Fiji's captain Maria Lutua told Fiji media the PacificAus Sports series "massively helps" in the team's preparations for the cup,
"We've got a young squad so for a lot of them the program has helped them with their development, their nutrition, with training and getting them exposed to competition," she said.
Bringing the African nations into the series for the first time added excitement and flair to the tournament.
There were celebrated off-court moments like a dance battle between Papua New Guinea and Kenya and cultural gift exchanges.
ABC Sport spoke to players from the four competing Pacific island nations who used words to describe the African teams playing style as "unorthodox" and "unpredictable".
Some noted an unusual preference to shoot one-handed.
Always gracious, Tonga credited Malawi with a tough first half in the grand final and noted the overall competitiveness of the tournament.
"It didn't come easy, we were pushed and challenged this week more than we've been before which was great for us to be exposed to before we head to the World Cup," Tongan captain Hulita Veve said.
But the reality is, not one of Tonga's opponents could get within 10 goals of a win, including Malawi.
This opens up tantalising possibilities for Tonga's performance at the World Cup in July.
They are pooled with Fiji (ranked 19), Zimbabwe (ranked 13) and Australia (ranked number one).
There's no sign of the Tonga Tala losing momentum.
Their head coach Jaqua Pori-Makea-Simpson has taken a sabbatical from her day job at Netball Taranaki to pour her focus into Tonga's World Cup campaign.
It begs the question, just how high can the Tala fly?
After 20 games undefeated in four consecutive tournaments, nearly anything seems possible.
