Bet brings sisters onto the footy field, love for the game keeps them there

The West Wyalong local found her home on the field, roughing up the boys before ageing out of the mixed competition.

Moving into youth girls competitions, she played for both Northern Riverina and Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong, but the introduction of Coolamon to the Southern NSW Women's competition made the transition into the senior game easy.

But a year into her senior career, she wanted to bring her sister Paige Hanrahan onto the field with her.

A quick bet later and the duo were pulling on the green guernsey together.

It's been smooth sailing ever since.

"It started off with a bet," Paige said.

"If I played football, she'd come play netball, she didn't end up following through with the netball bet, but I stayed playing football and I had so much fun."

With a four year age gap, senior football has been the first chance the sisters have had to play a full season together.

Thriving on-field together, Brianna said it's a unique opportunity for her to take on a 'bigger' sister role.

"I love it," Brianna said.

"Being able to play out there with my big sister, and being able to protect her because I'm the bigger one."

For Paige, the connection they have working the ball across the field is better than with any of their teammates.

"It works really good with both of us because I feel like we understand each other's game a bit more," she said.

"If Chook [Brianna] is doing a play or something I can pick up what she's doing and help her out, or vice versa."

Continuing to play is a big commitment for the duo though, with a three hour round trip for training each week, on top of additional game-day travel.

It's not just a love for the game keeping them playing though, but support from the club.

"The Coolamon club has been really supportive of us, and they've encouraged us to come back this year," Paige said.

"The support from all the girls and everything, they're so understanding with travelling and everything like that, they're just a really good club to be around."

"They're so understanding that we are so far away," Brianna added.

"If we have to leave early or we can't stay around for a few drinks at the pub, they're just super understandable and welcoming."

Gearing up for this week's semi-final against CSU, they're expecting a tough game.

After falling short in last year's grand final, the girls are hoping that experience will benefit them moving forward this finals series.

While disappointing to have not gone all the way in 2023, Paige said it helped settle some nerves.

"For the ones that have been playing for a while, it's just the excitement of it now," she said.

Energy is high among the playing group, and after a 3-point win over North Wagga last week, Brianna believes the team is hitting their stride at the right time.

"Last week would have been the best game we've all had, even Doc [coach, Aiden Macauley] when we got into the sheds said he couldn't give awards away because everyone gave 110 percent effort," she said.

"Everyone gets around each other as well, it was amazing, our game was just so heavily contested and so physical and everybody in our team did their role.

"Especially in that last five minutes just holding North Wagga out was really special for us, we all just had each other's back."

Coolamon play Charles Sturt University on Friday night at McPherson Oval in a Southern NSW Women's League preliminary final.