The league's strongest club of the past 13 years suffered one of its heaviest defeats in that time when Wangaratta produced a white-hot first quarter to ram home a 54-point hiding.

A handful of tipsters believe the resurgent Bulldogs will upset the favourites at Albury Sportsground and Taylor was quizzed if his team believes the opposition is vulnerable or pumped.

"I'm of the opinion how many times have you heard of Albury losing two in a row? Probably not since they lost that grand final (to Wangaratta) five years ago," he answered.

"There's some talk that Albury is vulnerable, but it's their first home game and they've got a point to prove."

The match promises to be a cracker given the doubters will be lining up against Albury if it loses a second straight game to start the season for the first time since 2007 when falling to Wodonga and then Corowa-Rutherglen.

And Wodonga has a buzz after last year's improved performances and the internal improvement the second-year coach expects from his youngsters.

"We've got the best young up and coming blokes, they're 13 games more experienced than they were prior to last year and that's where our improvement is going to come from," he maintained.

"Guys like Kade Mimmo, Isaac Cassidy, Josh Mathey, Gus Jones, they're the types of players we believe can take another step."

Mathey became the club's youngest best and fairest winner last season during the COVID-shortened season of 13 rounds.

Wodonga didn't play in the season-opening round, so the club will debut a handful of players, including boom Canberra-based duo Angus Baker and Alex Smout.

Baker was outstanding for GWS in last week's VFL win over Frankston, topping the match disposals with 25.

He has stated publicly his preference is to play with Wodonga but, given he's on the Giants' AFL COVID list, and could be called upon to play at the elite level and has indicated previously he would still love to play AFL after narrowly missing out on being selected by Essendon last year, it must be tempting to play the state level.

"Both Angus and Alex will play this week, while Josh Clayton will also play (in his full-time stint with the club after moving away from the AFL and VFL level)."

ALSO IN SPORT:

It's one of only two day games in the league's first round, with Tigers' co-coaches Anthony Miles and Luke Daly certain to have their charges primed for a bumper comeback after the horrors of the season-opening fixture against the premiership favourites.

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: