Former AFL player Liam Jurrah will walk from court a free man after a jury found him not guilty of seriously harming his cousin in a brawl last year.

The former Melbourne Football Club player appeared unmoved as the jury of five men and seven women returned its verdict on Thursday.

Five witnesses during the Supreme Court trial testified that they saw the footballer use a machete to attack his cousin during a fight at the Little Sisters town camp on the edge of Alice Springs in March last year.

But defence counsel Jon Tippett, QC, had asked the jury to take into account that many witnesses had been drinking on the night in question.

He said it had been dark and most of the witnesses had a motive not to tell the truth.