The Storm find their attacking flair, wingers continue to lead the way and the Bunnies get a reality check after their 64-6 defeat at AAMI Park.
A complete performance
Melbourne kept their foot on the Bunnies' throat for the entire eighty minutes, scoring early after each break of play until the last minute of play.
Coach Craig Bellamy felt his side's fast start set up the win.
"Our start to both halves, when we had the footy, is what set up the win and set up that scoreline. I thought we were outstanding [with the football]."
Skipper Cameron Smith agreed and enjoyed the team's intensity for most of the match.
"That's one of the more complete performances that the team has played in quite a long time," he said.
"We've had some big scores in recent times but none as complete as that one."
Storm reclaim their attacking mojo
The Storm's 64-6 win equals their highest score at AAMI Park (a 64-4 defeat of the Eels in 2013) and their biggest win of the season.
Smith's calm leadership – even in the face of a massive score line – allowed the team to execute their skills and not deviate from their game plan.
"I don’t think we got carried away at any stage," he said.
"There were opportunities there to try and express ourselves a little bit with the ball, but I thought we really did a good job to contain our excitement or sometimes the willingness to sometimes chance our arm."
Wingers unite
Melbourne's wing combination of Suliasi Vunivalu and Josh Addo-Carr continue to cement their place as the competition's best. The duo combined for six tries on Saturday night and now have 42 for the season.
They have contrasting styles – Vunivalu has power and aerial skills whereas Addo-Carr uses his electric pace – and ran for 241 and 194 metres respectively.
In a nice moment of serendipity, Addo-Carr followed through after his fellow winger busted the line. Vunivalu put through a grubber and Addo-Carr dived to score.
Souths get a reality check
Michael Maguire lamented his team's performance but will use it to improve in future.
"They were very good and very clinical," he said.
"Long-term for us, it going to give us a far idea of where we need to get to as a team. We've got a lot of young boys in our changing room that felt a team who's been very ruthless for a long period of time, and they now know where they need to get to."
"We've got a group of players in there that hurts. It's quite embarrassing I guess and they have to through that.
"What they went through tonight is something they'll be able to take away and add to what we need to be at a team.
"When we gave them a little bit of an opportunity, they took it."
Is it the Storm's premiership to lose?
Melbourne posted their 19th win of the season and are looking like every bit the premiership favourite.
They host the 10th-placed Raiders at home and will play at least another match at AAMI Park after that in the finals. Other opponents will have to combat their killer instinct – something Smith saw first-hand in the eleven-try performance.
"It was like there was a little bit of blood in the water tonight where the boys just went for the kill," he said.
"That’s the pleasing thing. Coming in at half-time, that was perfect opportunity to put the feet up and count down the last 40 minutes. We went straight back to work when we went out there. We just kept going at them."
