Melbourne's NRL future remains bright after Cooper Cronk's heir apparent Brodie Croft starred in their 44-18 rout of Newcastle on Saturday.
After stepping into the shoes of rested Queensland and Australian playmaker Cronk, 20-year-old Croft had a hand in five of the Storm's eight tries in front of 16,001 at McDonald Jones Stadium.
The Storm wrapped up their second straight minor premiership following the victory which moved them to 40 points, six in front of second-placed Brisbane.
Not only did the Knights have their three-game losing streak snapped, they have concerns over skipper Sione Mata'utia after he left the field in the first half with a concussion.
As well, in-form five-eighth Brock Lamb's season is likely over after he suffered a suspected grade two medial ligament tear.
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Queenslander Croft has earned numerous comparisons to Cronk due to his temperment and playing style and didn't miss a beat in just his fifth first grade game.
While Cronk will leave the Storm, and perhaps retire, at the conclusion of 2017, Croft's performance gave the Melbourne faithful plenty of hope they can be competitive for years to come.
"In terms of playing style they're quite similar to be honest," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
"At this stage we're thinking he's going to be our replacement next year for Cooper so he'll need to learn about his temperament and what his role is.
"There's a lot of similarities between them. They're both anal about their preparation."
After Jesse Bromwich was sin-binned for a professional foul, the Knights took a shock early lead when Lamb set up Lachlan Fitzgibbon close to the line.
However the Storm soon took back the ascendancy with Croft kicking for Curtis Scott to score before crossing himself to make it 16-6 at the break.
Croft extended his side's lead nine minutes after the resumption with a sensational individual effort from 30 metres out.
The Knights scored through Joe Wardle to get back within 10 however the Storm closed out the game with Will Chambers crossing before Croft got his hat-trick and threw a floating cut-out pass for Suliasi Vunivalu.
"After we played them I thought they're clearly the No.1 side in the competition and I didn't see anything today that suggested I'd be changing my opinion," Knights coach Nathan Brown said.
"For our younger players, that's the level they've got to aspire to get to. Physically they're quite big and strong and we handled them a lot better in the first half than what we did last time."
