Sandhurst eliminates Strathfieldsaye from BFNL premiership race.

The Dragons trailed by 18 points at the final change, but with the wind at their backs surged home with 6.3 to 2.1 in the last quarter to win 11.15 (81) to 11.7 (73).

Next Saturday will be the Dragons' first grand final appearance since they defeated Golden Square in the 2016 decider.

At three quarter-time on Saturday there was a sense that Sandhurst was "doing a Melbourne".

Much like Melbourne Demons in their two AFL finals, the Dragons had been wasteful forward of centre.

With a quarter to play they'd kicked 5.12 from 17 scoring shots, including a wasteful 4.7 in the second quarter when they had the wind.

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Their 14-point half-time lead should have been much greater.

Strathfieldsaye produced one of its best quarters of football of the year in the third quarter.

The Storm midfield took over and the Dragons couldn't get their hands on the footy.

The Storm added 5.4 to 0.2 to take an 18-point lead and all the momentum into the final quarter.

Considering the Dragons had only kicked five goals in the first three quarters, something had to change in the final quarter if they were to find a way to overhaul the Storm.

The major positional change was co-coach Bryce Curnow from defence to full-forward, but the change that had the biggest impact on the game was in the middle.

After being torn apart by their Storm opponents in the third quarter, Sandhurst's midfield got to work.

Ruckman Hamish Hosking and on-baller Noah Walsh set the tone from the first bounce and the rest of the Dragons lifted in confidence.

Curnow missed a set shot from 20m out inside the opening 30 seconds, but within a minute Walsh kicked truly on the run to cut the Storm lead to 11 points.

Walsh and Sam Conforti combined off half-back to launch another Dragon attack and a clever tap-on from Curnow gave Jake McLean room to snap his first goal.

The Storm had a quick reply from the resulting centre bounce. Lachy Sharp collected the ball across half-forward and he found Joe Mayes in the goalsquare.

The goal only momentarily steadied the Storm ship.

Sandhurst's veterans stepped up in the club's time of need.

Matt Thornton found Andy Collins in space 30m out and his set shot gave the goal umpire little work to do.

Five minutes later, Collins ran back with the flight to mark Lee Coghlan's deft pass in the forward pocket.

Collins snapped a goal around the corner to put the Dragons in front at the 16-minute mark.

The Dragons were winning all of the key moments in the final quarter and it continued when Nick Stagg produced something long-time Sandhurst supporters hadn't previously seen him do in his 15-year career - kick a goal from outside 50.

Stagg's set shot snuck home to extend Sandhurst's lead to seven points at the 21-minute mark.

The icing on Sandhurst's cake came from the youngest player on the ground.

In time-on in the final quarter, 16-year-old Archer Day-Wicks produced three passages of play that proved why he's so highly-regarded by the Bendigo Pioneers and the Victoria Country under-18 selectors.

First, he launched himself to take a crucial intercept mark on the defensive side of the wing.

In the next passage of play he swept on the ball deep in the scoreboard pocket and kicked a left-foot banana which curled through for a goal to give Sandhurst a 13-point lead.

Finally, in the dying minutes he soared over the top of Daniel Clohesy to take another intercept mark.

Not long later the final siren sounded and the Dragons' premiership dream was still alive.

The Storm's cup quest came to a sudden halt.

After losing ruckman Caleb Ernst to a hamstring injury in the first quarter, the Storm were down a rotation and it came back to bite them.

The Dragons ran out the game stronger and made the Storm pay on the scoreboard.

Sharp kicked three goals for the Storm to finish the season just two goals short of a century.

Jake Moorhead, Cooper Jones and Luke Webb were best for Strathfieldsaye.

Hosking, Walsh and Conforti were best for Sandhurst.

The best news for the Dragons was a clean bill of health.

They'll go into the grand final with close to a full squad to choose from.

Joel Wharton played his first game back from injury in the reserves and was one of Sandhurst's best players.

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