South Warrnambool's Wil Rantall and Koroit's Mitch Lloyd battled hard to showcase their talent but the Rebels lost their opening game of the season by 18 points to Bendigo Pioneers on Sunday, 10.13 (73) to 7.13 (55).

Loader said the pair held the "key defensive" posts and showed positive signs in the disappointing loss.

"Wil played really well I thought at centre-half-back and Lloyd did too at full-back," he said.

"We got beaten in the middle of the ground, our pressure was down and the ball came in a fair bit and those boys held down those key defensive positions for us and I thought they defended really well.

"But there's no hiding the fact we have several very good players missing from the side but it was more the way we played which was a bit disappointing.

"We had our opportunities but kept turning the ball over. We had 10 debutantes (on Sunday) and at this point in time just weren't able to play their role properly and that changes obviously over time.

"We ball watched a bit and it just wasn't enough. Bendigo were at full strength and they got us."

Loader said the group would look to quickly bounce back against the Geelong Falcons under lights this Thursday at GMHBA Stadium.

"From most boys it was a slow start, so across the board we were really quiet but that's to be expected," he said.

"We're not jumping up and down about it, we're realists. We can be a victim of our distance a bit sometimes.

"We've trained together maybe five or six times as an entire group so it'll take a bit of time."