Strathfieldsaye bounced back from a rare heavy defeat to outplay Eaglehawk by 26 points at Canterbury Park on Saturday.
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Stung by the 58-point drubbing from Golden Square a week earlier, the Storm came out firing early and set up their 11.17 (83) to 8.9 (57) win with a dominant first quarter.
The Storm kicked five goals to one in the first term and led by 35 points at the main break before the gallant Hawks stemmed the tide in the second half.
"It was such a better effort from us," Storm co-coach Darryl Wilson said.
"It was the opposite to last week. We got beaten around the contest against Golden Square and our whole effort was down.
"Today we cracked in and we were better on the inside and outside, it was very pleasing.
"It's not easy to win at Eaglehawk. I still think Eaglehawk is a good side and their top end players are as good as any in the competition. I think they're a top five side."
Eaglehawk's cause wasn't helped by two injuries in the first quarter.
The luckless Dylan Hanley (concussion) and small forward Liam Marciano (quadricep) both suffered match-ending injuries and the Hawks only had two fit players on the bench for the remainder of the match.
The defeat, combined with Sandhurst's upset win over Gisborne, saw the Hawks slip out of the top five.
"It's the second week in a row we've lost the game of footy with a bad patch of footy," Eaglehawk coach Travis Matheson said.
"Last week it was 40 minutes of footy, this week it was 25 minutes of footy.
"We have to be better than that. Our good footy is good enough, but we're struggling to put it together for a whole game. You aren't going to beat a quality side like Strathfieldsaye if you don't play four quarters of footy."
- READ MORE: Saturday Scoreboard
The Storm's midfield set the tone for the win.
Jake Moorhead and Cal McCarty were superb, while Daniel Clohesy and Caleb Sheahan gave the star duo the support that was lacking against Golden Square.
Teenage defender Mitch Hallinan claimed another scalp in Borough forward Sean Williams.
"He plays on good players every week and he does the job every week,'' Wilson said of Hallinan.
Midfielder Noah Wheeler (three goals) was clearly Eaglehawk's best player.
Ben Thompson's good form continued, with the young forward also spending time in the ruck.
Dillon Williams, the returning Kobe Lloyd and Joel Mullen tried hard for the Hawks, but the home side didn't have the depth to match it with the Storm.
Storm co-coach Shannon Geary injured his hamstring in his first game back from injury, while Riley Wilson and Jack Neylon were late withdrawals.
The Storm were outscored 5.5 to 3.8 after half-time.
"We tried to pull the game up after half-time because we had a few players underdone,'' Wilson said.
"We missed a few shots, but we did the damage in the first half."
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