The Ovens and King Football Netball league is back in the swing of things from this weekend after the Easter round, with five blockbuster matchups across the region in football and netball.

The match of the round in the senior footy is undoubtedly out at Whorouly, which will see the Lions host Milawa for the latest instalments of one of the more fierce modern rivalries in the league.

After coming up second best for 18 years, Whorouly finally broke through last season, knocking off Milawa in round 12 and the semi-final, and they look the goods again despite their 1-1 start to the season.

Conversely, Milawa will be fresh and firing after spending the Easter weekend with the bye following their round one win.

Demons coach Brenton Gray said the young and altered list was eager to be back on the park this weekend.

“It was very good, very handy for them all to have a rest [on the weekend],” he said.

“It’s a pretty good vibe, we’ve got a lot of blokes coming and going though, that makes it hard to get a good, strong team on the ground but we’re doing our best.

“Their leadership’s unbelievable on the ground - Xavier Ham, the Bihuns [Dan and Aiden], Paney [Simon Pane], they just all lead by example, and the young blokes are getting on board and following on from their good, hard work.

“It’s only been one game, they’ve got a lot of learning still to do, but it’s very positive for the young blokes.”

Gray said facing the thundering Lions, who went down to Bright by 39 points last weekend, would be a good gauge on how they’re progressing.

“We’re still finding our feet – I’ve put a new game plan in, and I reckon after half-time [in round one] they really stuck to their guns and did what I asked, but they’re still learning,” he said.

“It’ll be a long process, but I think they’ll get there.

“There have been some huge games [with Whorouly] over the last couple of years, I just wish we had our full back line, it’d help us immensely.

“We’ll just play with what we’ve got and see how we go, that’s all you can do.”

It will be an interesting meeting out at Goorambat in A grade netball, which will pit the Bats against Bright.

Both sides have only the one win to their name and will be around the same mark in terms of ladder position come September, but if you want to go deep, you’ve got to beat the teams around you.

Goorambat A grade coach Olivia Ryan said the match-up with Bright would come down to defensive efforts and counterattacking on turnover.

“It’s a very interesting game coming up for us, we have a few outs so we will get the opportunity to see our depth,” she said.

“Bright played the strongest defensive team in the league last week in Whorouly, and we pride ourselves on also being a strong defensive side so hopefully that will help give us an upper hand.

“I think it will come down to the team that shoots the most accurately - we dominated All Blacks but our shooting accuracy definitely needs to improve for us to be competitive against these top sides this year.”

Elsewhere in round three, the Blues are at home for the first time this season against King Valley, the Hoppers head to Benalla’s Friendlies Oval, and Tarrawingee face North Wangaratta at The Nest.