Hamilton earned two yellow cards in the first quarter against Narrandera,  the second incident resulting in the Eagles’ Logan Smith being stretchered from the field after a heavy collision.

The Swans went on to win 9.13 (67) to 8.1 (49), the display earning plenty of praise from coach Brandon Mathews following the club’s disappointing loss to Leeton-Whitton in round one.

“To be able to win one the way we did was fantastic,” Mathews said.

“It was a real gutsy effort to get the win the way we did.

 “It was certainly character building.”

Hamilton, who plays in the ruck and forward line, was the Swans’ best on ground against Leeton-Whitton, and his absence was always going to be noticed.

Compounding his loss was an ankle injury suffered by Queanbeyan recruit Sam Daniel during the match, which further reduced the Swans’ interchange bench.

The home side trailed by two goals at the first break and four points at halftime but never panicked and rallied when play resumed.  

Mathews said everybody shared the extra workload.

“The boys dug in and worked hard to cover him (Hamilton),” he said.

“The most pleasing thing was that it was hard to pick out individuals from the game because of the way we played.

“A lot of the new guys played really well, but in saying that so did everybody, I thought.

“Narrandera are a tough, physical footy side, but the young boys really stood up.” 

The Eagles’ biggest concern after the match was the well-being of Smith.

Narrandera coach Tim Sullivan told The Area News on Sunday that the teenager was doing all right.

“After the game he still had a pretty bad headache and memory loss and wanted to know how he had got into the change rooms,” Sullivan said.

“He came around afterwards, but he was pretty rattled from the incident.”