NRL champions Melbourne suffered an almighty scare by a fired-up Wests Tigers before escaping with a 26-12 win at AAMI Park last night.
In a gripping encounter the home side didn't hit the front until the 66th minute, with man of the match and halfback Cooper Cronk orchestrating a brilliantfinal 20 minutes.
After a try by Cronk they sealed the victory, which was a club record 13th in succession, with six minutes remaining and some individual brilliance by premiership winger Sisa Waqa in his first game of the season after a hand injury.
Little went right for most of the match for the home side, who looked shell-shocked as they were out-enthused and out-played across the park.
Melbourne's usual weapons - their kicking game and their defence - let them down while their attack was uncharacteristically sloppy with credit due to the Tigers' punishing defence.
The teams went to the sheds at halftime locked at 6-6. But the undefeated Storm showed why they are top of the competition ladder as they started to build some momentum in the second half while the Tigers ran out of steam.
Melbourne (C Cronk M Fonua S Vave S Waqa tries C Smith 4 G Widdop goals).
