The Dragons advanced to 7-0 after surviving a tough battle with an undermanned Eaglehawk at the QEO.

Eaglehawk was without Brodie Filo, Billy Evans, Noah Wheeler, Lewin Davis, Jarrod Findlay, Kobe Lloyd and Shaun Knott, but put in a brave performance to get within nine points of the ladder leader.

The 13.8 (86) to 10.17 (77) result could have gone Eaglehawk's way had the youthful Hawks kicked straight.

The Hawks have now lost three games for the season all by single digit margins.

"I couldn't have asked for more from the group in terms of effort,'' Eaglehawk coach Travis Matheson said.

"I think we had four players playing their first games and a few others that hadn't played many games.

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"The other two losses we had it's fair to say that we can put our hand up and say we didn't do the things we wanted to do.

"Today there's a feeling of pride amongst the group considering the players we had out from Melbourne."

The result leaves Sandhurst three games clear of the Hawks and the Borough is still to play top five teams Strathfieldsaye and Golden Square before we reach the halfway mark of the season.

That's why the Dragons were very happy to bank the four points and move on.

It's the first time since 2014 that the Dragons have started the season with seven-straight wins.

"We started well, but we were really poor in the second quarter and that was spelled out to the players pretty clearly at half-time,'' Sandhurst coach Ashley Connick said.

"We had a good third quarter and then the last quarter was even. We felt as though we were well below our best, but we hung in and got what was probably an ugly win in the end.

"Eaglehawk was really good and they took away a lot of the things we wanted to do.

"It became a real scrap and we're happy to bag the win. Credit to Eaglehawk they were really good. Their pressure and work rate was outstanding. They were a bit stiff in that they missed a few gettable shots as well, particularly in the first half.

"We had our slice of fortune, but we certainly didn't play well."

Key forward Matt Thornton returned to the Sandhurst line-up and had a big impact on the game.

He kicked four goals and took a swag full of marks.

Collingwood VFL co-captain Lachlan Tardrew showed his class through the middle of the ground, while Lachlan Ross and James Mittell also stood out for the Dragons.

Eaglehawk's best player clearly was inside midfielder Koby Hommelhoff.

With so many of the Hawks' first choice midfielders out of the side, Hommelhoff was forced to carry a heavier workload and he responded with arguably his best game for the club.

"Koby was huge for us,'' Matheson said.

"He was spent in the last quarter, but he looked like he was going to win the game basically off his own boot."

Joel Mullen kicked two goals and relished a midfield role, while defender Dylan Hanley moved on to Thornton after half-time and did a reasonable job.

The Hawks will be hoping the Melbourne travel restrictions are released before next Saturday's clash with Strathfieldsaye, while the Dragons travel down the Calder to play Kyneton.

Read more: Saturday scoreboard

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