Melbourne have shown their rise to the top of the NRL ladder was no fluke, crushing Canberra in a seven-try NRL romp at AAMI Park.
Leading into Saturday night’s match, Storm coach Craig Bellamy admitted he was surprised by their lofty position and unsure if they deserved it, but the Storm looked right at home as competition leaders with a 44-10 win over the Raiders.
Their eighth-straight victory sets up a mouth-watering top-of-the-table clash with Souths in Sydney next Friday night.
Canberra could rightly blame some poor refereeing for their last-round loss to Cronulla but there were no excuses this time or answers to the Storm’s rampant attack.
Melbourne scored their first try in the sixth minute through second-rower Felise Kaufusi and from that point never looked like losing.
The home side took advantage of some flimsy Raiders defence and poor ball control, as well as a lop-sided penalty count, to race to a 24-4 halftime lead.
Canberra’s only try came when Josh Hodgson sent veteran Sia Soliola barrelling across the line.
Billy Slater and Cameron Munster caused Canberra plenty of headaches, with Munster wrong-footing Raiders defenders to score the Storm’s second try of the night.
Rookie backrower Joe Stimson, who started ahead of Ryan Hoffman in a late switch, also got through a mountain of work in defence.
Winger Josh Addo-Carr pounced on a loose ball to start the second half with the Storm’s fifth try before Canberra centre Joey Leilua did likewise down the other end.
But the Storm scoreboard continued to tick over and Canberra was left to play out the match down a man after Jordan Rapana was sin-binned for a professional foul.