Corowa-Rutherglen's first home game for 280 days is not just any game, and this season is not just any season.

The Roos are playing Albury on Easter Saturday, with their senior footballers coming into the game off back-to-back wins while the A-grade netballers are once again among the premiership favourites having been thwarted by COVID since reaching the 2019 grand final.

If ever a club was 'up and about' it is surely this one.

Robyn Schilg, one of the club's newest committee members, can feel the buzz ahead of her son running out for main event in a few hours' time.

"Just talking with Jack, it's a long time since he's been this excited about playing football," Schilg said.

"His mates have come back from Geelong so he's playing with them and there's a really good feel, that they actually can win.

"There's been lots of anticipation, lots of meetings and lots of work behind the scenes to get ready. The ground looks absolutely beautiful and everyone's really keen for a great day."

Schilg, born and bred in Corowa, has always been around the club but this year will see her more involved.

"They were looking for people who perhaps hadn't been involved before," she said. "I felt, instead of sitting back, saying 'they should do this or they should do that,' I'd join in and see how it's actually done."

Roos treasurer and secretary Rowena Black will be glad of the help.

"March and April is really flat-out so I've been doing a couple of days a week, bringing everything together," Black said. "I'm fairly involved in different ways but I love seeing new people get involved.

"We've had a whole new Play HQ system that everyone's had to learn, so getting everyone registered and understanding that new system, how it works and getting all the information off it, has been a big thing.

"I started playing netball here in 2008 and the club was not in a good place.

"There were a lot of years when it was a hard slog but the last five years have been really awesome, seeing local girls come along, learn new skills and pursue netball to the highest ability they can.

"People just love to come here."

There's already a smattering of blue around the netball court, where B-grade co-captain and A-grade assistant Kiara Corkett is discussing battle plans with coach Georgie Bruce.

"We look at how people train and who looks up and about and on the day, who's got the vibes going on," Corkett explained.

"The culture here is very positive, open communication and we work hard for each other. It's something you feel rather than being able to explain; it's just a special place to be.

"We don't segregate each other by teams, it's a whole-club feel and that's a massive difference for us as a club.

"We work hard to make sure it's that way. We've got people who have come from other clubs and it's not comparable. Everyone matters, everyone has a voice."

It's half-time in the C-grade game and Corowa's A and B-grade players head inside for a meeting to go through individual goals for the day as well as the key focuses for shooters, mid-courts and defenders.

You hear the term 'culture' thrown around willy-nilly in clubland but actions speak louder than words and the Roos are practising what they preach.

Sophie Hanrahan, the Toni Wilson medallist in 2018 and 2019, is the most vocal person courtside, giving the C-grade players passionate support and some tactical pointers.

"We tend to pull a bigger crowd with the A-grade in the afternoon, girls stick around, so we want to make sure we return the favour by getting here early to support them," Hanrahan said.

"I like to get around girls before we play, we all like to congregate around the side of the court and talk a bit of smack with each other, a bit of banter to get everyone up and about.

"That time is probably even more important than the warm-up because you want to make sure each person you're about to step out on court with is in a good place."

The quality of Hanrahan, Grace Senior and Liv Sinclair, among others, is expected to keep the Roos among the front-runners again but their prominence is not taken for granted.

"I have to get a bit of a perspective check sometimes to remember where we've come from," Hanrahan said.

"I used to have a Mars Bar or a Kit Kat and a pie before a game, whereas now we're a little more stringent.

"That comes from Georgie and the group of girls we've cultivated over the last five years. We all have the same objective and the same goal and it's great to be around like-minded people who want to win but have fun doing it.

"I think that's what attracts a certain type of girl to this club.

"It's no secret we have a good mix of Corowa locals and girls from Albury and Wangaratta and these girls have come to the club because it's competitive, we can have fun and we love a drink after a game.

"We are social - but we're as competitive as all hell."

By population, Corowa-Rutherglen is a small fish in the big Ovens and Murray pond so how does the club manage to punch above its weight?

"The relationship between our netball and football people in the club is very close," Roos president Stuart Lingham said.

"They support each other and celebrate each other's successes, so we've got a very unique relationship.

"You need everybody pulling in the same direction if the club's going to be successful and a lot of clubs don't have that in the district.

"I first came to the club as an interested parent when my son was playing here. One thing led to another and within a couple of years I was asked if I'd be interested in the presidency so I said I'd help out.

"The club was struggling, finding plenty of challenges. The previous few years, they hadn't won a game so things weren't good at the time.

"But it had started to improve in terms of who they'd appointed to coaching positions. Georgie Bruce was central to that and then Peter German, at the start of last year, was one of the keys to the changes that started to happen in the club.

"Coaches are the linchpin of what happens in a football-netball club and we think Georgie and Germo are two of the best.

"They're both passionate, committed coaches and they work really well together, which is so important.

"They're very big on us being one club and they've set the standard."

With half an hour until the seniors are due to run out, German's presence on the side of the netball court is testament to that special relationship.

An earlier than normal start in A-grade has given him a chance to watch Bruce's side which he's not about to pass up.

"Right from day one, Georgie and I hit it off," German said.

"We've got the same mindset, we want the same things, we go about it the same way with a professional attitude and we look for any sort of advantage we can get, internally or externally.

"I've always been a club coach, I've tried to make the whole club better. Corowa has been around for a long time and they've got a lot of good people around the place but a lot of them just don't have the time to be able to utilise the potential the town, the club and the region has got.

"You're never going to make on-field better if off-field's not functioning how it should.

"I've coached all around Australia and when I leave a club, I like to think it's in better shape that when I got there."

Matchday director Roger Bradtke has already seen the Roos take big strides in that regard.

"The club's very happy with 'Germo' and he's added a professionality that we've been lacking in the past," Bradtke said.

"One club, one community: that's what we're trying to promote.

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"My wife's father, John Lane, is a legend of the club and my son (Kaelan Bradtke) is a senior player now.

"I get excited for the team but not particularly for him.

"Following his cricket and football takes up most of the year but it gives me something to do on a Saturday."

The crowd is building as we approach 2pm.

"The kids have been bursting at the seams to get out and play," Linda Eyers said from behind a rail of hoodies on the merchandise stall.

"The club's very important for us, to have that sporting outlet for the whole family. Moving here, me not being a local, it was the best way to meet people and I see the same thing for my kids.

"They're out there with like-minded kids, having fun and kicking the footy."

Linda's husband Brendan made more than 300 appearances for the club and his father, Jim, played for Corowa in the 1960s.

"Country football is struggling at the moment and you need families involved," Jim said.

"The Eyers family is not the only one; you've got the Kuscherts, the Longmires and the Spencers who have been around for a lifetime, basically, and you've got the grandparents involved now."

It's hard to pick a path through the packed terracing as a late rush of spectators swells the attendance further. It feels like everyone in Corowa is here to cheer on their side against the Tigers.

"The whole community gets behind the footy club when they start to have success," Lingham said. "People tell the stories of 2000 and 2003 when they won premierships, that it really was a whole-town event and the whole community were involved in some way in that success.

"It's about going back to basics and trying to set up a club that's got some standards, culture and values, trying to get those things right off the field and that builds into what happens on the field.

"Recruiting the right people to the club and getting volunteers involved helps to overcome some of the challenges associated with being a small town."

The hype around today's game turns out to be justified as the Roos push Albury all the way before losing by two points in a classic. You suspect today's performance is just the start under German, who's been working for the club two days a week since the turn of the year.

"We've created a whole new package of memberships, even to the point where we're trying to get 12-year-olds to become members," German said.

"We'll give them actual Corowa footy cards, so we try to replicate a bit of what they do at the top level.

"We did the Australia Day parade and we got our footballers and netballers to go up Sanger Street and thank the people in the shops.

"I asked the players 'before I arrived, were you proud to wear your blue and white up the street?' and they said 'not really because we don't win games of footy' but now you see them - and our juniors - wearing it all the time.

"We need to be proud that we play for a club that's progressive and competitive and that sends a message to the rest of the community that, OK, there must be something going on down there."

There certainly is, and the evidence from an unforgettable Easter Saturday suggests the word is spreading.

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