Coach Trent Robinson has questioned the commitment of his Sydney Roosters players after they were humiliated 46-0 by Melbourne.
After three successive minor premierships in his first three years, including the 2013 NRL premiership, the Roosters hit rock bottom under Robinson in their eight-tries-to-nil hammering to the Storm at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
The loss was the Roosters' biggest ever at Allianz Stadium, Melbourne's biggest win over them, and the first time the Storm have kept the Tricolours scoreless.
And Robinson wasn't impressed.
"There was a fair bit on effort tonight. We just didn't have enough on the field making the efforts that they were," Robinson said.
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"We challenged ourselves at halftime and just couldn't get it done. It was pretty disappointing."
Led superbly by Cooper Cronk, who scored two tries, the Storm were up 18-0 at halftime and carried on with that in the second half as the Melbourne pack monstered their counterparts.
"As soon as they started going through our ruck midway through that second half, that was when it became really disappointing," Robinson said.
"If you are going to play you want a bit more effort than that.
"We were going to lose tonight by the way Melbourne played and the lack of quality that we had, but to lose by that much, that is the disappointing thing."
Suliasi Vunivalu scored three tries for the visitors as they moved to the top of the NRL ladder, where they will likely stay at the end of round 14, even if Cronulla defeat North Queensland on Monday.
The Roosters were minus stars Mitchell Pearce, Boyd Cordner, Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Dylan Napa and the gap in class was evident, even after Storm playmaker Blake Green was ruled out with a calf injury.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy was ecstatic with his side's effort.
"We were really good," he said.
"The longer the game went on the more clinical we were."
"We were urgent and desperate.
"We could have taken our foot off the pedal, but we didn't. We went on with it."
Bellamy praised the efforts of Cronk and Cameron Smith as they continue to successfully negotiate the arduous State of Origin period, and the performance of Cameron Munster, who was again one of the Storm's best.
"Cameron has showed us some skills we didn't know he had," Bellamy said.
