The Cougars have suffered big defeats at the hands of Jeparit-Rainbow and Swifts however it isn't all doom and gloom for the debutants.

The side secured their first HDFNL win when they beat Edenhope-Apsley by an impressive 52-points in round five and they also came very close to undoing Natimuk-United, losing by just 11-points in round four.

The Cougars also haven't been helped by the fact that they've played five of the top seven teams within the first six rounds and besides the Swifts and Storm games they have been competitive against their higher ranked opponents.

READ MORE:

Kaniva-Leeor coach Ashley Grant said this year involved quite a lot of adjusting for the club.

"We've had our good moments and we've had our really trying times," Grant said.

"(We're) sort of struggling a little bit at the minute with some injuries to key players which hasn't really helped.

"In saying that the guys that we've brought up have all been trying their best and doing their best and it's given us a chance really this year to play some younger kids as well which has really helped develop them, so that's been positive.

"There's a lot of good qualities that come out of tough times and the players are really digging deep at this stage."

Grant was disappointed in his sides 75-point loss to Jeparit-Rainbow in round six, saying that it was a bit of a "reality check" for the side and where they are.

"We're just gonna be trying to put our best team out on the ground whatever that looks like and just stick to our structures and plans and just try and keep the enthusiasm up in the group," he said.

"I think that's number one and keep the pride going within the group and just trying to keep going out there every week and just trying to stick to our plans and our structures and play to our strengths.

OTHER NEWS:

"There's always gonna be tough times in footy but those tough times won't last forever."

While Victoria's snap lockdown has been an inconvenience for most it can be more frustrating when you reside in a town 40 kilometres from the South Australia border.

While Kaniva qualifies as a cross border community as it is within 70km of the border and residents are able to travel into SA with a permit, they will have to travel outside of that 70km for some of their away games in the HDFNL.

When the HDFNL is able to start again, there could potentially be travel issues for some of the Cougar's players, if the SA border is still closed.

"If that's the case (a hard border lockdown) we've got a couple of players in Bordertown that will struggle to get to away games for sure," Grant said.

"We've got two guys coming out of Melbourne so it's affected their plans and our plans with them and we've got another guy coming out of Darwin so it doesn't look possible to get him either.

"Who wants to go home and quarantine for two weeks?

"You can't work, so it really disrupts your life."

The Cougars have however been lucky in that most of their players jobs haven't been too negatively affected by the lockdown.

"I think the majority of our guys, 90% of them, are all working in the rural industry so I don't think that's really changed for them," Grant said.

Unfortunately for them, the Tiger's tough fixture to start the season doesn't get any easier, with games against undefeated Rupanyup and Noradjuha-Quantong over the next few weeks.

After that though they have a slightly easier run with games against Edenhope-Apsley (8th) and Taylors Lake (11th) in rounds 12 and 13.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: