"With a 22-year-old captain, four 18-year-olds and two 16-year-olds in the squad, it's a huge task to take on the much bigger and more experienced sides, yet I thought the boys battled really well," Barnes said.

"We are very fortunate to have such talented juniors coming through our club so all looks good for the future.

"Losing Brent Herdman (ankle) early really hurt us, as we are light on for bigger bodies and as a result we struggled to hit the scoreboard.

"I'm super proud of the character this playing group has and I'm sure we will cause an upset or two before this season is over."

In the loss at Keira Oval, the Tigers were best served by Courtney Ward, Connor Clarke, Charlie Rodden, Jack Batson, Jack Boxsell and Siwa Harvey-Aziz.

This was just one of three losses the Tigers suffered to the Bulldogs on Saturday, with the premier women's and division one men's side going down 11.9-75 to 2.7-19 and 16.15-111 to 4.5-29 respectively.

Best for Geoff Gibbs' women's side in the loss were Bridget Kellett, Jess Liddiard, Ellie Priest, Jaimi-Lee Gibbs, Emma Dempsey and Nayana Patmore, while Nathan Thomas, James McDonald, Josh Lapatha, Terry Kager, Rob Bleumink and James Biggs did what they could for Brent Tyrrell's division one side.

Also in the AFL South Coast division one men's competition, Nowra/Albatross went down 10.10-70 to 4.6-30 to Port Kembla - while the Vikings women's team lost 3.2-20 to 0.1-1 to the Bulldogs.