Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith expects the Sydney Roosters to try to bash them out of their NRL match at AAMI Park on Sunday.

But he is confident the Storm can withstand any bash and grab raid from the Roosters, who Smith said successfully used the tactics in their upset 40-8 hammering of Melbourne late last season.

“We’re all aware of the result of the game in Sydney last year, but we’re not going to use that as motivation for this week,” Smith said.

“We know that the Roosters are going to come down with a similar attitude, a very aggressive attitude, and try and bash us out of the game.

“They’ve got a big physical forward pack, they do enjoy the contact, so we’ve got to try and withstand that.”

The second-placed Storm are unbeaten this season.

But the Roosters have struggled for consistency, and perhaps had luck on their side in an error-riddled win over Canberra last week.

Smith believes improving their ball control is an area Melbourne must work on, and it would help them withstand the physical assault he expects from the Roosters forward pack.

“We’ve made mention in the first few weeks about how we need to work on our ball control, but we’ve played two games in pretty ordinary conditions,” Smith said.

“Canberra (in round one) was atrocious and last weekend (against Gold Coast) it was muggy and raining, and the ball was like a cake of soap.

“That’s no excuse for us. We want to be controlling the football and you look at all the games early in the year, the team that controls the ball the most usually wins.”

Melbourne are likely to rush back centre Dane Nielsen to replace Maurice Blair, who was suspended for a fortnight by the club after he was charged with assault last weekend.