Brooke Pryse joins Wangaratta Magpies after spending eight seasons with Wodonga Raiders

After a year away from the game, the four-time Wodonga Raiders best-and-fairest has joined last season's runners-up Wangaratta.

Pryse, 23, is united at Norm Minns Oval with aunt Lou Byrne as well as cousins Issy Byrne, Amy Byrne and Chaye Crimmins.

But the chance to fight for premiership glory was just as big a draw card as the family ties, while Pryse is relishing the personal challenge of having to earn her place in a side which has contested the league's last three A-grade deciders.

"I'm very excited," Pryse said.

"I'm a bit unsure still because I don't know what it's going to look like or how it's going to feel.

"I've never played with those girls before but the family connection definitely excites me about going to Maggies.

"If I'm being honest, I was always going to eventually go to Maggies for a season; I just needed to pull the trigger on when.

"I look at myself and my age and I think I've probably only got a couple more really solid years where I can give netball 110 percent effort before things start to settle down and you talk about children and everything.

"I had a year off but then I was like 'let's challenge myself, give it a red-hot crack, work for court time, be a team player and sit on the bench if I'm playing bad.'"

Pryse had carved out a reputation as one of the competition's premier defenders prior to stepping away from the court to focus on her studies and travel and Hannah Grady, who will co-coach the A-grade with Lou Byrne this season, is pumped to have her on board.

"It's amazing," Grady said.

"It just adds so much depth into our defence and allows for so much more rotation through the mid-court as well as defensively.

"Brooke's an unbelievable player.

"It's such a great pick-up and I can't wait to play with her in the circle.

"She did a few training sessions with us last year and helped us defensively at the back end of the year when a couple of us were under the weather with injuries.

"She really enjoyed it down there and was keen to start with us this year."

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Pryse, who will launch her own business in Albury mid-year, described how the netball bug began to bite her again a few months ago.

"I've never played finals in A-grade and I started to miss it when they were playing finals," Pryse explained.

"I guess I've got the drive to play finals now because I was looking at it, going to a couple of the finals games and thinking 'I want to be out there, I want to be doing that!'

"Before the year I took off, I became a bit displaced with my netball ability.

"I would just play the game, I wouldn't really go 110 percent and I didn't have that drive to be better.

"So I guess I'm choosing Wang for the family ties but also for the challenge.

"I need to train my butt off to get on the court and when I get on the court, I need to be playing well.

"There's the team morale aspect as well, to get the girls up even if I'm on the bench.

"That was probably a driving factor; the Maggies being successful definitely helped that decision."

With the new season just over five weeks away, Pryse is starting to get a feel for the Wangaratta way.

"It's very different to Raiders," she revealed.

"Being at one club for eight years, you're in the know about absolutely everything.

"You get spoken about when merchandise is coming out and you're in the know because you're the person either designing them or handing them out.

"Going into a club where I'm introducing myself to players even a month in, it's completely different.

"They're both awesome clubs and the draw has actually worked out in my favour.

"Raiders normally play Maggies on Good Friday but this year it doesn't work out that way (the Pies face Rovers instead) so I can find my feet in the Maggies team before we go to Raiders and play them. All the girls at Raiders support me in my decision, so there's definitely no bad blood.

"To be honest, it's exciting to play on the girls because the year I had off, I went to see a couple of Raiders games and their potential went through the roof.

"They've really found their feet so I'm excited to play against them at their new potential, to see what it feels like on the other side."

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