Both have trained strongly this week to prove their fitness to coach Rob Wright, who has named his strongest side since round eight as the club chases a third-straight win following recent triumphs over Adelaide and West Coast.

McCulloch has missed the past two games with bone bruising to the back of the knee, while international Hadley hasn't played in more than a month after sustaining a similar injury.

"We didn't want to rush bringing them back too early and then have them being out again," Wright said. "We survived the two games without them really well.

"They trained this week, they got through training really well yesterday, so they'll go back into our line.

"Paige is our only Diamond. I did a session with her last Friday just to see how she was tracking and she looked pretty good then. We weren't quite sure on Abbey, but the couple of sessions that Abbey's done since then, she's just looked better.

"Experience is the one thing that we don't actually have a lot of, and they're our captain and our vice captain.

"It's just great to have them back. The opportunity that it's provided for a couple of other players has been fantastic in their absence, but it's always good to get your most experienced players back on court."

The fourth-placed Magpies remain one of the Super Netball premiership favourites despite a stuttering season, although they still need at least one more win to guarantee a top-four finish.

They looked to have finally found their best in April and won three-straight games before last weekend's loss to Sunshine Coast.

Only a point separated Wright's team from the Magpies in a narrow round-six loss, one of NSW's best performances of the season, and the coach is relishing the opportunity to take on the Melbourne powerhouse once more.

"Every opportunity to come up against some real class is just great because there's nothing like playing world-class players to actually get better and compete and learn and develop," Wright said.

"They've started to really build as this season's gone on. They didn't get the points last week but you keep feeling the back-end of this competition, they're going to be a real threat.

"Technically they can still not make the four, but they'll make the four and I think we're going to see them at the business end of the season in my opinion. It's a tough challenge.

"We're still after that consistency. I always say after every week, young, inexperienced and consistent are three things that do not go together.

"Hopefully we keep seeing those good things that we saw last week. There's nothing like winning to keep building confidence – a couple of wins just puts you in a good place."