In the Ovens and King league, there are only a handful of bigger stages than Pioneer Park on Easter Saturday.

The crowds show up in support of the Mountain Men in their most important home game of the season, packing the pavilion and the hill with cheering supporters, eager to watch their boys do the job on the park.

In a change-up from previous years, the alpine derby will be the centrepiece of the Easter festivities when Whorouly heads up the Great Alpine Road to take on Bright.

Pioneer Park has not been a happy hunting ground for the Lions, with their last win up the mountain coming way back in 2012, and their average losing margin post-covid at the venue coming in at a haunting 125.33 points.

Even last season’s encounter, which Bright won by 110 points, came at a heavy physical cost for Whorouly, with only a handful of maroon jumpers left on the park after a horror day of injuries.

Whorouly coach Michael Newton said he wasn’t fazed by the history the ground held for the club but was focussing on embracing the occasion and playing their best footy.

“It’s a new game for us, the Easter Saturday fixture, but there’s no better challenge than to come up against the reigning premiers on their home deck in front of a big crowd,” he said.

“You’ve obviously got a new team every time you go up there, so if you’re thinking too much about what happened last time and worrying about it, it sort of takes the focus off the job at hand.

“Last year we went up there and we finished the first half with 17 fit men, we had a different sort of look at it last year, but this year we’ve come off a nice strong victory at home.

"Our confidence is growing, and Bright’s going to be looking to bounce back after a narrow loss last week, so they’re going to be coming out all guns blazing.

“We’re excited for the challenge."

Newton said the team was working on winning ball at the source, which is an area of the game Bright pride themselves on.

“We’ve got to continue to get better at clearance, Greta have been a strong clearance side and so have Bright, so there’s no better test than to come up against probably the two best clearance mobs in the last couple of years,” he said.

“That’s an area we’re focussing on, and some of our ball movement stuff, execution, just tidying a few areas up moving the footy forward and not looking a bit one-dimensional.

“We want to continually work on how can we get better, we probably don’t have enough time in the week to work on everything, so it’s just going to take a bit of time, hopefully not that long.

“There are some very pleasing signs, some good performances from a couple of individuals who are new to the club and some guys who have been around a while.

“It’s something we looked at as a club, we need to bring in a bit more youth, and you could see it on the weekend - it’s unfortunate Alex [Cairncross] copped the concussion, but he, Zac [O’Shannessy] and Harvey [Dodgshun], they’ve brought some good, new excitement.

The Lions take on Bright at Pioneer Park on Easter Saturday.

Round two action kicks off on Good Friday, with Bonnie Doon hosting Benalla All Blacks, and Moyhu at home to Greta.

The other Saturday fixture sees King Valley launch their season after taking the bye last weekend, at home to North Wangaratta.

Goorambat, Milawa and Tarrawingee will sit out with the bye.