A week, or in fact 80 minutes is a long time in this game.
That was all the time it took for the Storm to shake off their dreary mid-season slump.
Melbourne scored 10 tries on Saturday night against Penrith, the same number they managed in their previous four games combined. It was the perfect way to emerge from a four-week winless run and a typically torrid Origin period.
With seven different try scorers it seemed the men in purple were more willing to take responsibility at the attacking end than in previous weeks. It was that change in mindset along with an inner belief that has appeared to steady what only a week ago seemed a shaky Storm ship.
"As a playing group we were confident that a big score was coming soon and it was going to click, we just didn't know when. Now that it has happened we hope we can build some momentum in the next few weeks," five-eighth Blake Green said.
"Just our mentality in the game was really strong and I thought the way we started the game. We didn't give them a chance to respond, we just went hard from the start for the full 80.
"I certainly hope it can continue, it certainly hasn't been through a lack of effort. It is something that we obviously spoke about in greater detail in the last three to four weeks."
Cooper Cronk sent a minor scare around AAMI Park on Saturday night as he iced his recently injured knee 10 minutes before fulltime. However it was merely a precaution and the star halfback will be fit to face the Dragons on Saturday.
The game shapes as a critical one for the fifth-placed Storm to keep touch with the top four, of which they currently sit two-points behind.
Having been at the top of the table already this season Melbourne is well aware of the need to make every game count from here on out.
"We were in a position to consolidate where we were before Origin and we didn't do that," Green said.
"It is just how you turn up on the day an unfortunately the last couple of weeks we weren’t quite there. It's obviously important for us to make sure we turn up with the right attitude and be as effective as possible in every part we play on the field."
