Melbourne admit the Alex McKinnon tackle incident has rocked the NRL club but they’re refusing to use it as an excuse for their plummeting form.

The Storm’s upset 28-26 home loss to surprise new NRL leaders Gold Coast on Sunday was their second straight defeat since the devastating spinal injury suffered by Newcastle forward McKinnon on the same AAMI Park ground 13 days earlier.

Storm forward Jordan McLean is serving a seven-match suspension for his role in the tackle that led to the injury but the incident appears to be having a widespread effect on the whole team, with their defence shredded.

The Storm defenders lacked their usual clinical focus and aggression, missing 32 tackles on Sunday.

Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith admitted his team’s attitude to defence – conceding 88 points in the last three games against Newcastle, Canterbury and Gold Coast – was an issue.

“It’s human nature to be thinking about Jordan and obviously Alex and his family but we knew we had a job to do,” said Smith after his team dropped to ninth on the ladder.

“We’re professional sportsmen and we needed to put it out of our minds for the 80 minutes today and I thought we prepared well leading up to the match.”

Even usually feisty Storm coach Craig Bellamy looked despondent at his post-match media conference, only firing up when asked about Sunday’s decisive late penalty for raking the ball, which he described as a “disgraceful decision”.

“It’s had an effect on everyone,” Bellamy said of McKinnon’s injury.

“It’s been an horrific situation.”

Bellamy was asked whether his side had altered their tackling technique.

“The NRL changed the rules before this season started. That’s out of our control. I don’t really know how else to answer the question,” said Bellamy.

Nor did he want to comment on the stinging statement issued by Newcastle on Thursday after McLean’s judiciary hearing.

Smith said his team needed to improve their defence to get their season back on track and said until they did, they wouldn’t win.

“Defence is an attitude; if you want to stop teams then you will stop them but if you don’t want to do the hard work then they’ll score.”

Titans coach John Cartwright was delighted with his team’s form as they became the only team with four wins from five rounds.

“Ball in hand it was the best we’ve played,” Cartwright said.

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