The Dragons fought their way back from 20 points down at three quarter-time to level the scores 72 apiece during the final term.

However, the Storm responded to the Dragons’ challenge, kicking four of the last five goals of the match to finish 14.13 (97) to 12.6 (78) victors.

In his return from a hamstring injury, star Strathfieldsaye forward Lachlan Sharp was among the igniters for the Storm late.

Sharp bagged six goals, three of which were part of the late surge from the Storm.

“Sharpy did what Sharpy does and flicked the switch late and probably won it off his own boot… he was brilliant in the last few minutes,” Strathfieldsaye coach Troy Coates said.

“With our injuries we went in with a game plan of speed and pressure and a smaller side.

“We didn’t have a lot of talls up forward, which was frustrating at times because Sandhurst took a lot of intercept marks, but in the end it paid off with our fitness and being able to run away with it in the last quarter.”

The Storm’s under-18 premiership captain of last year, Shannon Murphy, made his senior debut, as did the Bendigo Pioneer-listed duo of Hunter Lawrence and Callum McCarty.

Coates showed plenty of faith in Murphy by playing him on Sandhurst coach Andrew Collins, who was coming off a haul of eight goals against Kangaroo Flat the previous week.

Murphy stuck to his task superbly, keeping Collins goalless.

“I don’t mind giving first-gamers an important role and he was fantastic,” Coates said.

“He’s one of those players who will do anything for the team… when all his focus is to stop Andy then it helps to make his role fairly straight forward because he’s not having to worry about where his next kick is coming from.”

Another of the Storm’s key defensive roles was given to second-gamer Shaun Dwyer on Daniel Connors.

“We started (Nick) Clydesdale on Connors. He kicked three or four goals in the first quarter and we then put Shaun on to him and he was able to shut him down,” Coates said.

“I think we’ve got a really exciting future with the young players coming through.”

Another two of the Storm’s youngsters in on-baller Jake Moorhead and ruckman Harry Crone, who has had a superb start to the season, were prominent, while Tom Dowd in his 100^th game for the club also figured among the best.

The victory improved the Storm’s record to 3-1, while the Dragons are now 2-2 and have come up short in their two biggest tests so far against Strathfieldsaye and Golden Square.

“Strath was just a little bit cleaner later on when they got it forward and Sharpy stood up for them in the last quarter,” Dragons coach Collins said.

“It was a see-sawing game of momentum and they were just a bit good in the end.”

After his dominant start early in attack for the Dragons, Connors finished with five goals in his second game for the club.

Lee Coghlan (two goals) did a power of work through the midfield for the Dragons, while Jed Zimmer (two goals) and ruckman Tim Martin were also solid contributors.

“We’re still learning our own style and Strath has some real class players like Moorhead, Trent Donnan and Coates, who are really constructive around congestion and get the ball out,” Collins said.

“They play a really good style and we’re still learning and tweaking ours and trying to master it.”

Dragons’ forward Matt Thornton suffered a broken nose and concussion in a marking contest.

South Bendigo converted just 11 of its 32 scoring shots in a 61-point victory over Castlemaine at the QEO.

In front of a crowd that featured a reunion of six past South Bendigo premiership teams, the Bloods won 11.21 (87) to 3.8 (26).

The Bloods held the Magpies goalless until the third quarter on the way to their second win of the season that lifted them from sixth to fourth on the ladder.

“We generated a lot of scoring shots, but there was obviously a fair bit of inaccuracy,” Bloods coach Brady Childs said.

“You still take a 10-goal win, but if you flip it around and you’ve got 21.11 then you’re where you want to be in terms of your conversion.”

Saturday was the second year in a row the Bloods have been off-target against the Magpies at the QEO after kicking 11.22 against them last season.

“The positive is we had plenty of the footy and put together some good passages of play and ball movement to hit up our forwards in space,” Childs said.

Kaiden Antonowicz and Brock Harvey both squandered the opportunity to kick a bag of goals for the Bloods.

Antonowicz finished with four goals and five behinds, while Harvey kicked two goals along with seven behinds.

Joel Swatton provided the Bloods with plenty of drive off half-back to be their best player, while fellow defender Tom Brereton and Leroy Miller across half-forward also played well.

Bloods’ ruckman Kieran Strachan didn’t play after half-time with concussion.

Fabian Brancatisano kicked two of Castlemaine’s three goals, while Jesse Johnson added the other.

Since beating Maryborough in round one Castlemaine has kicked just seven goals in its past three games.

The Magpies named defender Mark Noonan, who had the job on Antonowicz, as their best player, while impressive youngster Jack Chester also worked hard on what was another tough day for Castlemaine.

Kangaroo Flat lifted itself off the bottom of the ladder with its first win of the season against Maryborough.

The Roos outscored the Magpies in all four quarters in their 12.12 (84) to 10.2 (62) victory at Dower Park that came off the back of a hat-trick of heavy defeats in their first three games.

The key on-ball trio of Liam Collins, Jonathan Lanyon, who returned to the side, and co-coach Corey Greer all played strong games, as did Nick Lang in the ruck and Ethan Roberts on the wing in his debut.

Dylan Klemm presented well inside 50 and was rewarded with four goals.

Given the struggles the Roos had endured to start the season, Maryborough will be rueing a missed opportunity to post a rare victory.

There were promising signs for the Magpies when they led by 10 points during the second quarter, but by half-time the Roos had worked their way to a nine-point advantage and led for the remainder of the match.

The best players for the Magpies – who have now lost 12 in a row since they ended a 47-game losing streak mid-year last season – were led by Bodie Malone, Connor O’Shea across half-back and Brady Neill.

Zac Eagan kicked two goals for the Magpies.