DESPITE sitting with no points from their first two matches, King Valley are confident they have what it takes to be competitive in the Ovens and King league.

Their position at eighth on the ladder is incredibly deceptive, given the combined margin from their first two matches, against Milawa and Tarrawingee, is just 11 points.

Senior co-coach Anthony Ciancio said the squad had identified the areas they fell short in during the first fortnight of competition, and were hard at work on the track to rectify it.

“We’ve obviously gone down in our first two games, but to be able to pull it apart has given us some clear direction with where we need to head in terms of where we need to improve,” he said.

“Efficiency for us over the first two weeks probably hasn’t been a strength of ours, so just looking particularly at our movement forward as well as some forward entry drills and practice is where we see a lot of our time’s going to be this week leading into Goorambat.

“We’re looking at the way we enter our forward 50, as well as some defensive structures.

“Tarrawingee well and truly beat us at the source on the weekend, knowing they had a few quality mids, which is something we were more so reactive to on the weekend.”

The Roos head to the Bat Cave this Saturday to face the similarly winless Goorambat, and Ciancio is expecting a true fight.

“Being 0-2 at senior level, we’re still confident,” he said.

“Hopefully starting this weekend against Goorambat, it’ll be a really tough contest, knowing that Goorambat are one of the teams which has really improved since last year, particularly on their home deck, they’re a hard team to beat.

“We’ve trained this week with a big contest coming up for us on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can put on a bit of a spectacle across the football and netball for the King Valley and Goorambat communities to come out and have a watch.”

Ciancio said his midfield had really stepped up so far, with former best and fairest winner Conner Shanley and captain Sam Evans proving their mettle in both hit-outs this season.

“Having Conner back was a really big win for us, in his first two games he’s started from where he left off a couple of years ago at a senior level,” he said.

“He’s spending the majority of time in the middle, as well as pinch-hitting forward, which has been really great.

“Our skipper Sam Evans has started the season really well, but in saying that, complementing that, we’ve had Dylan Browne come out from Magpies – his last quarter against Tarrawingee, when we were up against it and Tarrawingee had a fair few repeat forward 50 entries, he really stood up and put forward what he could do at senior level, which was really exciting.”

King Valley heads to Goorambat this Saturday, with the reserve fixture set for 12pm and the seniors from 2pm.