The Hawks extended their winning streak to nine with a 46-point victory over the Dragons, 14.10 (94) to 6.12 (48), at Canterbury Park on Saturday.

Among their past three games the Hawks have avenged losses against the only two teams to have beaten them this year – the Dragons and Strathfieldsaye.

In what has been a season plagued by injury for Sandhurst, there is likely to be more bad news to come after ruckman Tim Martin (knee) was helped off the ground in the arms of two trainers following a ruck contest midway through the last quarter.

The Dragons, now six points outside the top five, also had Pascale Craig yellow-carded and reported in the dying minutes for “careless contact” to a central umpire at a stoppage ball-up.

The stoppage-dominated contest didn’t reach any great heights as the wind wreaked havoc with the ball-use of both sides.

One of the key points of interest leading into the game was how the ladder-leading Hawks would cover the loss of injured full-forward Matt Gretgrix (broken hand).

The answer was with a brilliant game from small forward Riley Saunders.

Saunders was a livewire inside forward 50 for the Hawks in bagging five goals. At one stage during the third quarter he had kicked four of Eaglehawk’s seven goals. 

As well as a strong breeze blowing across the ground to the grandstand side, it also favoured the park end of the ground, which was evident in the first term when a kick-in from full-back by Sandhurst’s Zac East landed in the centre circle.

However, despite the breeze favouring the park end, the bulk of the scoring for the first three quarters was done against the wind to the Simpsons Road end.

Of the combined 12.15 that had been kicked for the game to three quarter-time, 9.6 had been against the breeze.

Just as they had done against Golden Square a week earlier when they kicked the last nine goals, the Hawks – who had lost their previous six encounters against Sandhurst – again finished the game full of run.

This time they kicked eight of the last 10 goals in what was a game where they led from the 21-minute mark of the first term onwards.

The Dragons’ score of 6.12 included the first four scoring shots of the game – all of which were behinds – in the opening three minutes. 

While Saunders was instrumental in the Hawks’ win, so too was reliable defender Tyler Miles, who had the job on Andrew Collins when he was playing forward and was brilliant all game.

Conditions didn’t help, but the Dragons, who had captain Blair Holmes battle hard to lift his side, again struggled inside their forward half in what was the third time in their past five games they have been held to less than 10 goals.

The game featured a melee during the last quarter after several spotfires had erupted earlier in the match.