West Coast had the strongest squad entering Sunday's triple-header NAB Cup clash with Hawthorn and Fremantle at Subiaco and advanced, but the young Hawks were the most impressive.

West Coast beat Hawthorn 0.5.1 (31) to 0.4.5 (29) in the opening match but the Hawks finished strongly, kicking the last three goals, and took that momentum into their clash with Fremantle to win 1.4.4 (37) to 0.3.5 (23).

The Eagles and Dockers then battled, the Dockers calling up Matthew Pavlich, Aaron Sandilands and Luke McPharlin.

But the Eagles opened a 13-point lead and did enough to hold on and win 0.5.7 (37) to 0.4.1 (25).

West Coast joined AFL premiers Collingwood and Melbourne as weekend winners, heading into the preseason Cup quarter-finals.

The best team from each of the six opening round-robin fixtures goes into the quarters, plus the next two best-performed teams.

The Hawks arrived in Perth with a virtual no-name team, stars Cyril Rioli and Shaun Burgoyne joined by just a handful of others who would be considered in the best 22.

Hawthorn then lost key defender Tom Murphy who rolled his ankle in the opening minute against the Eagles.

He joined the injured or rested Jarryd Roughead, Jordan Lewis, Rick Ladson, Sam Mitchell, Josh Gibson, Michael Osborne, Xavier Ellis, Chance Bateman, Clinton Young, Brad Sewell, Luke Hodge, Cameron Bruce, David Hale and Lance Franklin.

Rioli and Burgoyne were both outstanding, though, while Isaac Smith, Ben Stratton, Matthew Suckling, Tom Schneider, Jordan Lisle, Jordan Williams and Sam Menegola showed exciting signs, delighting coach Alastair Clarkson.

"It took us a little bit of time to settle in that first game and West Coast jumped us, but overall we are really pleased with the outcome of the day. We brought over a very young squad and knew and understood that coming into the game," Clarkson said.

"Both West Coast and Fremantle used some senior players in games against us and that's just a great opportunity for our young blokes. They acquitted themselves well in both games just fell short in the first and won the second against Freo. We're really pleased with that."

In the first match, West Coast opened up a 23-point advantage early in the second half, but then the Hawks got going. Two goals to Lisle and one each to Schneider and Menegola brought them within three points, but misses to Brent Renouf and Brendan Whitecross robbed them of a win.

Burgoyne had 11 disposals with Whitecross picking up 10 and Rioli nine. West Coast was much closer to full strength with the notable absentees being Daniel Kerr, Adam Selwood, Mark LeCras and Adam Selwood. Scott Selwood and Brad Sheppard led the way with 13 possessions each, with Dean Cox doing well to have 12 and 10 hit outs.

In the second game, Hawthorn booted the first four goals, including a super goal to Smith, against the Dockers to open up a 25-point advantage. While Fremantle kicked three goals to one from there, the Hawks won by 14.

Suckling led the way with 12 disposals, Schneider had 11 and Burgoyne nine. Rioli collected eight touches across halfback.

Sandilands and Pavlich didn't play for the Dockers despite sitting on the bench as substitutes.

Mature-aged recruit Tendai Mzungu was outstanding with 14 possessions while Greg Broughton, Zac Clarke and Nick Lower picked up 10 each.

West Coast coach John Worsfold was delighted with what he saw from his younger players and feels it's important for them to again taste the winning feeling after the Eagles won just four times in 2010.

"It's always nice to win. It's always important for a young group and a group that hasn't had a lot of success in recent years. We achieved what we wanted to achieve out of tonight and won both games, so that was good," Worsfold said.

"It's preparation. We haven't had any intra-club games, so this is the first real step up for the guys and the different format meant really we looked at it as another training, good, hard hit-out leading up to the next three NAB Cup games."

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