After two consecutive one-point wins, Monday night's 28-20 Round 3 victory over Newcastle was a welcome relief for Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy's blood pressure.
Down 8-2 after 20 minutes the Storm had to weather a fiery Knights side desperate for its first win of the season. However their class ultimately shone through and remained in control of proceedings for much of the second half.
It was that level of control that the Storm had failed to grasp in its earlier, tumultuous wins to start the season.
"I thought we were better for longer periods of the game tonight," said Bellamy.
"It was probably a bit less of a grind tonight; there was some open footy there."
The open footy served as a feast for the Storm's wingers, as both Sisa Waqa and Young Tonumaipea were an ever present threat. Waqa crossed the line for the third straight week, and had the AAMI Park crowd on their feet with a barnstorming run up the left touch-line for the Storm's first of the night.
"That gave us a bit of confidence, especially for the younger guys, and I thought it was a pretty important moment in the game," said Bellamy.
"At that stage they were leading 8-2… so it was a real arm wrestle then we sort of broke it open and scored some tries off the back of that."
After the match, Knights coach Wayne Bennett said his side "beat themselves", an opinion the Melbourne coach believes his counterpart is entitled to though does not entirely agree with.
"At the end of the day Wayne's got his opinion and if he thinks they beat themselves then so be it," said Bellamy.
"I remember last year he was critical of teams giving away penalties on their own try line and that happened for us tonight.
"If he thinks they shot themselves in the foot a couple of times then that's fine but having said that I thought our guys responded really well."
The Storm travel to Perth to face the Bulldogs on Saturday at 7.30pm (EDT).
