Storm coach Craig Bellamy is looking for some finals buzz from his NRL team when they host North Queensland on Saturday night.

Melbourne looked more like a team thinking about summer holidays than an NRL premiership when they were beaten by last-placed Newcastle on Monday night.

Backing up at AAMI Park, the Storm need to beat the third-placed Cowboys to keep alive any slender chance of a top-four finish.

Bellamy said he wanted his team to play like they had a dose of finals fever.

“I’d like to think at this time of year we should be excited about what’s ahead; what’s going to happen in September,” Bellamy said.

“On Monday we didn’t have that excitement.”

Last round the Cowboys came from behind to over-run the Warriors, which they also did in their round-four clash with the Storm, who led 16-4 at halftime.

North Queensland’s win over the Warriors came at a cost with representative stars James Tamou (neck) and five-eighth Michael Morgan (ankle) out indefinitely.

Bellamy said the Cowboys had the forward depth to cover Tamou, and they had been doing their homework on Morgan’s replacement Ray Thompson.

The Storm know they need to limit the Cowboys’ possession or find themselves out of the game in a similar fashion to their Knights loss.

“The big thing with the Cowboys is because of their size and way they play footy, and if they control possession they wear teams down,” Bellamy said.

“Because of the calibre of players, when they do get an excess of ball they’re really hard to handle.”

Back in round four superstar Johnathan Thurston kicked a field goal to push the game into golden point and then another for a memorable 18-17 win over the Storm.

Bellamy said he was well aware that Thurston was the man they needed to stop, but doing that was another thing.

“As soon as they need some inspiration or someone to do something he’s the one to do it,” said Bellamy.

“This year he’s as good as he’s ever been.”