Sydney Swans' premiership coach John Longmire admits he was shattered when his junior club Corowa-Rutherglen was forced out this year.
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However, the AFL longest serving active coach was as excited as anyone when he oversaw the resurgent Roos for their last training session on Wednesday night, prior to the Christmas break.
"It means a lot to come back and see the start of the football club again," he said.
"It was devastating to hear the news (earlier this year), not just about the on-field, it's about the off-field and what the local football and netball provides to the community, to not have that sense of coming together every week.
"Hopefully this is the start of the return of a great competitive footy club."
Corowa's John Foord Oval looked picture perfect on a lush surface and was buzzing with players, with approximately 40 senior players and a host of under 18s.
"Last year at this time we would have had eight or nine, so this is awesome, it's my home club and it's hard to put into words what it really means," playing stalwart Joe Hansen offered.
"This year was pretty rough, but we're ready to move on and give it a red-hot crack."
The Roos were forced to miss the 2023 season, due to a player shortage in both the senior and junior football, along with the senior netball, while floods in October-November, 2022, left the clubrooms unusable.
"We were confident we could always come back, we classed it not as going into recess, it was always a reset," president Graham Hosier explained.
First-year coach Steve Owen and the Roos' recruiting committee found themselves in the extraordinarily difficult position of contacting players while they still had months of the season left at their current clubs.
"Steve's done a brilliant job, not many coaches would try and continue without a team playing," Hosier praised.
The Roos contacted hundreds of players, but their hard work was rewarded when the club officially announced its return in late October.
Longmire, who claimed a premiership at the North Melbourne Kangaroos in 1999, returns home for Christmas every year, but this one was even more special.
"One of my best memories is having family and friends here," he suggested.
"My two grandmothers would sit in the car over near that light pole, with one I couldn't do anything wrong, and the other I couldn't do anything right.
"I could be in the forward pocket over the other side of the ground and I could still hear them (laughs)."
