Melbourne Storm intend treating Cronulla like they’re in the race for the NRL title rather than the wooden spoon when the sides meet at AAMI Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Storm were bitterly disappointed they surrendered a 10-point lead in the final three minutes of their loss to Newcastle last round which saw them slip to seventh on the competition ladder.
Captain Cameron Smith said the team had fallen into a bad habit of losing to teams below them on the table and they wouldn’t make the same mistake with the last-placed Sharks.
“We need to go out and play as if we’re playing against a team in the top three,” Smith said.
“It’s clearly an attitude thing – when you’re preparing for a Manly or Souths game you know you need to be up.
“This year – we’ve been beaten by teams below us on the table and it’s something we need to fix this week.”
Melbourne thought they had put their defensive woes behind them after a run of solid performances, so conceding six tries against the Knights stung.
“We’re very disappointed with those defensive efforts and it was just down to attitude really,” he said.
“You look at the games that we have defended quite well, it has been against the sides in the top three at the moment.”
While at the bottom of the ladder the Sharks showed spirit to almost knock off the sixth-placed Warriors in Auckland.
Smith was wary of what they could produce and said his side couldn’t afford another slip-up with the finals race so congested.
“If we had won on the weekend we would be equal fourth, now we are down to seventh and possibly out of the eight with another loss, it’s that tight.”
Smith felt his team had shown enough to prove they could be contenders at the pointy end of the season, with consistency the only difference between them and the top sides.
“We’ve proved to ourselves this year that when we play our best footy we can beat the top sides; we beat Manly twice, we have beaten South Sydney and Penrith and they are in the top three on the ladder.
“We can’t win all the matches we play but our best is going to be competitive and that is all you really need when you play finals football.”
