The Storm gave Gisborne a wet weather football lesson on Saturday to jump the Bulldogs into second place on the ladder.

Sandhurst remains on top of the table, but the clinical nature of the Storm's 10.15 (75) to 5.2 (32) win proved that they are once again the team to beat for the premiership.

It was the Storm's eighth-straight win and the final margin of 43 points could have been higher had the home side made the most of its dominance in general play in the first half.

At the other end of the ground, Gisborne's classy forward line was clamped by a well-drilled Storm back six.

Gisborne star Pat McKenna was held goalless for the first time post his AFL career with GWS and Melbourne.

McKenna had kicked 136 goals in his previous 27 games, dating back to the start of the 2019 BFNL season.

Jack Neylon did a superb job on McKenna and his team-mates in defence chipped in when required to help make life hard for the Dogs' champ.

Around the ball, the Storm's midfield relished the wet conditions and gave their forwards plenty of opportunities.

"Gisborne are not bad in the middle, so we had to fight hard in there,'' Storm coach Darryl Wilson said.

"Gisborne had their fair share of the footy, but our back half was just fantastic.

"To hold Gisborne to five goals was a really good effort.

"Gisborne had a few out and they had some young kids in, so we're not getting carried away."

The game could have been done and dusted as a contest by quarter-time.

The Storm only kicked two goals from eight scoring shots.

"Kicking at goal was an issue for us,'' Wilson said.

"If you control the game as well as we were, you've got to make it count on the scoreboard.

"Against quality teams you can't leave the door open, particularly in a big game in September.

"We kicked 2.6 in the first quarter and it could have been 6.2... even if that was 4.4 you put more pressure on the opposition."

Somehow the margin was only three goals at half-time and Gisborne had its best path of footy in the third term to be still in the game, on the scoreboard at least, with a quarter to play.

The final quarter was one-way traffic as the Storm piled on 4.3 to 0.1 to get some reward on the scoreboard.

Aside from the Storm's defence, midfielders Cal McCarty and Jake Moorhead were brilliant for the Storm.

Conway kicked 2.7 and should have been named in the Storm's best six players. Ditto Shannon Geary. The Storm co-coach was everywhere and could have easily picked up a Michelsen Medal vote or two..

After knocking off Sandhurst the previous round, the Dogs looked a different side against the Storm.

"They jumped us early and worked us over,'' Gisborne coach Rob Waters said.

"We got smashed at the stoppages in the first quarter, but I thought we started to even things up late in the second quarter and in the third quarter.

"The problem was we couldn't hurt them on the scoreboard. When we made it a 50-50 game we couldn't score.

"We tended to scramble the ball inside 50, whereas when they went forward they seemed to get good looks at the goal.

"We probably should have been dead and buried at half-time.

"We said to the boys how Strath had kept us in the game and, even at three quarter-time, we thought we could still win if we turned it on.

"However, from the first centre bounce of the final term we had a kick that was smothered, the ball went to Strath and they went bang, bang and kicked a goal.

"That was the game in a nutshell. If the final quarter had gone five minutes longer it looked like we were going to lose by 10 goals or more.

"They were just too good for us."

Jack Reaper was clearly the Bulldogs' best player. The key defender did a grand job on Storm centre half-forward Cooper Jones.

Jack Scanlon was Gisborne's most dangerous forward and he did a good job around the ground as a back-up ruckman.

The Bulldogs should bounce back with a win next week against Kangaroo Flat.

Nick Doolan, Ethan Foreman and Braidon Blake are on track to resume from injuries in the next few weeks.

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