It's been the past of two months since the minor premier Storm had a testing contest.

On July 21 an under-strength Storm lost to Sandhurst by 46 points at the QEO. Since then they played five matches for wins of 159, 161, 67, 58 and 123 points.

On Saturday night the Storm face a battle-hardened Eaglehawk in the second semi-final, with the winner to advance straight to the grand final.

"We had a really solid training session last Saturday morning at our ground,'' Coates said on Friday.

"We tried to make the session as game-like as we could. We did a fair bit of competitive work and got plenty of kilometres into the legs as well.

"We had a big month of training leading into that and then we lightened things up this week in preparation for this game.

"We're ready to go."

The Storm had a heavy injury toll throughout the home and away season, but still managed to finish a game clear on top of the ladder.

Star forward Lachlan Sharp won't return from his broken leg, but the Storm have managed to get close to their best team on the park for the finals.

"It's disappointing to lose Sharpy and we've still got Bryce Carroll out injured as well,'' Coates said.

"This is the strongest line-up (on paper) we've had all season. We think the 22 we've picked is the right 22 to win the game.

"Even though this 22 hasn't played together this year we've done a lot of training together and we should be able to adjust."

Competition for places in the Storm senior 22 is hot, particularly with the availability of Bendigo Pioneers trio Bailey Henderson, Hunter Lawrence and James Schischka.

Henderson will play in the second semi-final, while Lawrence and Schischka will play in the reserves.

"We had to make a couple of hard calls at selection which is never nice to do, but you'd rather have guys that are really unlucky to be not playing rather than guys that are lucky to play,'' Coates said.

"The Pioneers' boys Bailey Henderson, Hunter Lawrence and James Schischka are pushing for senior selection and if they're not playing seniors they're going to be playing some handy reserve grade footy for us.

"We're really happy with the strength of our reserves side."

The Strathfieldsaye hierarchy sat back and watched Eaglehawk's demolition of Kyneton in the qualifying final and couldn't help but be impressed.

The Hawks did as they pleased after quarter-time, with their elite field and kicking and hard-running a feature of the 112-point win.

Coates said the Storm can't afford to give the Hawks the same time and space as the Tigers allowed.

"The first quarter was pretty tight and it was a contested game with high pressure,'' Coates said.

"After quarter time the game opened up and Eaglehawk ran away with it. We've spoken a fair bit about that this week and we're expecting to put Eaglehawk under a fair bit of pressure.

"We're expecting Eaglehawk to do the same to us, so it should be a high pressure game with both teams going hard at the footy."

The Storm and Hawks split their home and away meetings. Saturday night’s game starts at 6pm.