Melbourne will be playing to keep their hopes of making their sixth Grand Final in the past eight years alive when they take on Newcastle this Saturday night.

The Storm had two tries disallowed (somewhat controversially) in last week’s loss to South Sydney at ANZ Stadium (20 – 10).

It means that the Storm’s only win in the past three weeks has been a one point victory in Golden Point over Gold Coast Titans.

It’s not the form we’ve come to expect from Melbourne at this time of year but, they do have everything in their favour for this clash in that they possess an excellent home record – only one loss this year and, have seven straight wins over their opponents Newcastle, including both clashes this year by margins of 2 and 7 points.

Playing for the last month of the regular home and away season just to keep their season alive prepared the Knights well for last week’s sudden-death clash against Canterbury.

Despite being outsiders, the Knights were too good in all aspects of the game and recorded a strong 22 – 6 point win.

There are some very experienced heads in the Newcastle team, their forward pack especially, who they’ll rely on heavily in this match and of course, with Wayne Bennett at the helm, you know they’ll be prepared as best as they can be.

Their defence has been good in recent times with only the Cowboys in the past seven matches being able to post in excess of 18 points against them.

This is where Newcastle will have to be at their best as Melbourne, who if allowed to get on a roll, have plenty of points in them

Three of the last four matches have produced total match scores of 30 points or less and with it all on the line for both teams here, a similar result would not surprise.

Not as much between them as the current head to head market would suggest but at home, Melbourne to be a shade too strong.

TIP: STORM 1 – 12

Odds comparison by NRL Odds:

Melbourne Storm	1.38	1.38	1.37	1.38	1.38	1.36
Newcastle Knights	3.10	3.15	3.15	3.15	3.10	3.15

Teams:

Melbourne Storm:
Billy Slater, Sisa Waqa, Will Chambers, Maurice Blair, Justin O’Neill, Gareth Widdop, Cooper Cronk, Jesse Bromwich, Cameron Smith, Bryan Norrie, Kevin Proctor, Ryan Hoffman, Ryan Hinchcliffe. Interchange: Jason Ryles, Tohu Harris, Jordan McLean, Kenneath Bromwich, Brett Finch

Newcastle Knights:
Darius Boyd, James McManus, Joey Leilua, Dane Gagai, Akuila Uate, Jarrod Mullen, Tyrone Roberts, David Fa’alogo, Danny Buderus, Willie Mason, Robbie Rochow, Beau Scott, Jeremy Smith. Interchange: Matt Hilder, Chris Houston, Neville Costigan, Alex McKinnon