![Corowa-Rutherglen's Sophie Hanrahan. Picture by James Wiltshire Corowa-Rutherglen's Sophie Hanrahan. Picture by James Wiltshire](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131362666/b4ec304c-d186-4990-a32b-b7034d8b4dc3.jpg/r436_503_4591_3340_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Sophie Hanrahan is the only A-grade netballer left at Corowa-Rutherglen.
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The newly-appointed Roos coach and two-time Toni Wilson medalist broke the news during Thursday night's meeting at the Corowa RSL Club.
Much of the talk has been about the club's shortage of footballers but Hanrahan's update to members painted an equally bleak picture.
"It's not a great start to my coaching career," she admitted.
"From last year, I'm the only returning A-grade or B-grader across the senior teams.
"It's not ideal but there are a fair few reasons (behind it).
![Sophie Hanrahan speaking at Thursday night's meeting. Sophie Hanrahan speaking at Thursday night's meeting.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131362666/ce4dd9ba-793d-4f5f-848e-20da9a1fcb0d_rotated_270.JPG/r0_531_1772_1815_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Across A and B, we've lost a fair few girls whether that be going to uni, moving to Melbourne, Queensland or Western Australia.
"We had a girl go back to her home club and Liv (Sinclair) has gone to her new home town (coaching Myrtleford) as expected.
"We've only retained five to six players from our C-grade team; another's registered to trial but nowhere near enough to have a competitive senior team.
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"In terms of recruiting, signing on after Christmas with Noel (Halton), Andy (Eales), myself and Rowena (Black), we were sending messages and talking to lots of girls but they'd already committed to other clubs.
"We've still got 17s and 15s, we've got a full team there which is really exciting so hopefully we can get junior sport off the ground."
Corowa-Rutherglen had been premiership contenders in each of the past few seasons and if the club does go into recess, Hanrahan is determined to come back stronger in 2024.
![Corowa-Rutherglen finished top of the ladder last year but lost to Wangaratta in the preliminary final. Picture by James Wiltshire Corowa-Rutherglen finished top of the ladder last year but lost to Wangaratta in the preliminary final. Picture by James Wiltshire](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/131362666/4bd10255-40ec-46c6-94a9-de07bc2e8c14.jpg/r0_0_5403_3602_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"We want to get back to where we were last year, which was four grades of netball making finals," she said.
"For us to be able to do that, we need to focus on our juniors.
"We've got a really great group of 15s and 17s, that we picked pre-Christmas and these girls range from Wahgunyah, Corowa, Yackandandah and Coreen.
"Our focus for this season should be on those girls and trying to get them 18 rounds.
"If we can hold onto that, we can support these girls and filter them up through the senior grades while we work on recruiting senior girls.
"I am really confident that we can pull together some competitive senior squads."
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