Melbourne Storm star Cooper Cronk has urged his side to shed little errors from their game before the bad habits stick.
The Storm followed up an impressive 12-4 round one win over the Dragons with a two-point loss to Manly on Saturday night in contentious circumstances.
Cronk refused to blame referees, who were the focus of controversy in the 24-22 loss.
The Storm were denied two tries by officials either side of the half-time break, but Cronk said referees were not the reason they lost.
"Rugby league's been played in the same spirit for over 100 years," Cronk said.
"Some go your way, some don't and I'm not in a position to worry about that.
"I make more mistakes during a game of football than anyone else does."
Instead, Cronk suggests pointing the finger of blame towards themselves ahead of what he said would be a tough match review from coach Craig Bellamy.
"There'll be a robust conversation around the performance," he said.
"Particularly the last 15 minutes of the first half where our defence let in a lot of points.
"There was a lot of disappointed gentlemen in our rooms after the game.
The Storm conceded three tries in eight first-half minutes, with Daly Cherry-Evans at the centre of the blitz.
For Cronk, it seemed all too familiar.
After enduring one of the Storm's most up and down seasons in recent memory last year, Cronk doesn't want a repeat.
"Round one was a really good performance, we took some really giant steps in the right direction," he said.
"Then for that period of time it was a reflection of last year, quite inconsistent.
"We want to nip it in the bud and put it away.
"Inconsistency was what crippled our season last year.
"We need to put it to bed and start playing the way Melbourne Storm likes to play football."
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