BFNL - Selection headaches for Storm with six players to come back for blockbuster against Square

LADDER-leader Strathfieldsaye will have six key players returning for its BFNL blockbuster against fellow flag contender Golden Square this Saturday.

The Storm and Bulldogs are the two form sides of the competition, who combined have won 16 games in a row.

The Storm (1st) are riding a nine-game winning streak, while the Bulldogs (3rd) will make the trip to Tannery Lane having strung together seven victories in a row.

As well as a keenly-anticipated clash between two of the heavyweights of the competition, it will also be a history-making day for Strathfieldsaye when Kellan Smith becomes the first Storm player to 200 senior games.

The Storm are coming off a 107-point win over Maryborough and are expected to inject the forward trio of Cooper Jones, Kallen Geary and Harry Conway, full-back Ben Lester, midfielder Caleb Sheahan and ruckman Tim Hosking for Saturday's showdown with the Bulldogs.

"We're going to have a few selection problems this week, but you'd rather be having selection issues than not in terms of player availability," Storm co-coach Shannon Geary said on Wednesday.

"They are all quality players we've got coming back, which is a great position for us.

"And we're really excited that we'll have Riley Wilson playing his first game in the reserves on Saturday after injuring his ACL last year in Queensland.

"He has been doing a lot of training and it's great that he has finally got the OK to start playing again."

With Saturday's forecast for possible rain and a maximum of 11 degrees, Geary says the Storm are bracing for a brutal battle against the Bulldogs where winning the contested ball will be at a premium.

"For both teams this is going to be a really good challenge to see just where out gamestyles are at and at this stage of the season, probably an ideal time to see if we need to make any adjustments before the last six games," Geary said.

"Golden Square is a really well structured side around the ball and have some great players up forward, down back and in the midfield as well.

"I think with the way the conditions are, which look like being fairly bleak, it's going to be a really contested game of footy and whoever wins the contested footy, even if it's by just +1, is probably going to win the game."

While it's very much a new-look Storm side this year given the high turnover from the 2019 premiership team, the BFNL ladder does have a look of familiarity to it again with Strathfieldsaye grabbing top spot last weekend.

"As a club it has been great to see the likes of Daniel Clohesy, Callum McCarty and Pat Blandford really come on this year," Geary said.

"They were all in the 2019 reserves grand final team and their development over the past 18 months has gone through the roof.

"We lost a few players going into this year and you wonder how are we going to cover them, but the progress of our younger players has been phenomenal."

Along with prime mover Jake Moorhead, McCarty and Clohesy have been the Storm's three most consistent players in the engine room this season.

As well as sitting on top of the ladder, the Storm also boast the competition's leading goalkicker in star forward and captain Lachlan Sharp, whose eight-goal haul against Maryborough took him to 62 for the season.

The Storm beat Golden Square by 15 points in round four.

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