The Hawks wiped out their tiny three-quarter time deficit to slip out to an eight-point lead half-way through the tense final term before the Dragons bounced back to slash the margin to a single kick once again.

But the dogged Eaglehawk defence held firm to deny a final shot on goal by Hurst midfield ace Blair Holmes as they nailed their sixth win of the season.

The Dragons used the early stiff breeze favouring the Barnard Street end the better adding 6.2 in the second term to snatch a 13-point half-time lead.

But the tough Hawks, with Brodie and Jesse Collins, Riley Saunders and Jonty Neaves prominent, added five second half goals to three to win 10.10 (70) to 10.9 (69).

Inaccuracy plagued the Hurst in the opening term as the Hawks, at the other end, banged home four majors.

The quarter was 24 minutes old when Jed Zimmer nailed the Dragons’ first goal. Neaves had been on target for Eaglehawk in the opening 60 seconds with Riley McIvor, Ben McPhee and Jack Fallon adding the other goals.

But then the Dragons took over as the second term unfolded. Coach Andy Collins nailed three majors alternating between midfield and half-forward, Lee Coghlan watched his bouncing shot roll through while Holmes banged home two more, the second from a set shot after the half-time siren had sounded.

The Hawks didn’t do much with the third term wind advantage.

They scored three goals, two from the boots of Jesse and Brodie Collins - Brodie’s coming from a long bomb after he’d cleverly side-stepped around an opponent - while the Dragons’ Taylor Strachan responded as he finally found the big sticks after three first half misses.

The last term was always going to be a thriller. Three minutes in the scores were tied at 55 points apiece before a high Jesse Collins kick from a free sailed through.

Riley McIvor was behind two more Eaglehawk scoring moves which resulted in points although by then the Hawks were out by eight points.

Dylan Morris snapped accurately for a great team-lifting Sandhurst major and again the margin was under a goal.

Eaglehawk’s best-on-the-day Riley Saunders saw his shot graze one of the big sticks before Gedd Hommelhoff nailed what looked to be the sealer for the Hawks with an around-the-corner snap for full points.

Normally a defender Zac Pallpratt snapped a Hurst major and again the margin was just three points with 24 minutes played. The Hawks’ defence managed to hang on as time ran out for the Dragons.

Sandhurst coach Collins refused to attribute his side’s loss to the drop in wind strength towards the Barnard Street end goals as the match wound down.

“I don’t think the wind came into it too much really,” he said.

“We had a heap of chances to score against the wind in the first quarter, but we just didn’t finish off our play.

“Our effort overall was so good we were always going to have chances to score. But they’re a good side and they’ll always keep coming at you,” Collins said.

Eaglehawk coach Josh Bowe, a late withdrawal through injury, said watching from the sidelines was different if a tad stressful.

“Then to scrape over the line made me really happy,” he said.

“We were able to get Brendan Tanner’s first game into him plus Clay Davies played his second game and Ben Thompson his third.”