It's sink or swim time for the Melbourne Storm according to their coach Craig Bellamy.
The Storm head into their NRL clash with fierce rivals Manly at AAMI Park on Saturday night with four wins and four losses.
The stage is set for another epic encounter following their round one match when the Storm fought back from 20-0 to pip the Sea Eagles 23-22 with a Cameron Smith field goal in extra time.
Despite winning only one of their last six games Bellamy said his team wasn't far off the competition front-runners.
"I don't think we're that far away from being up with the top teams but we're also the same away with being right down the bottom.
"We're just treading water at the moment; we need to start swimming because if we don't we are going to sink."
Bellamy said rather than the win-loss record or ladder position he was more concerned with how his side played.
"If we win we'll go 5-4 and lose the other way so in that context I suppose it's a big game but I'm more concerned about our performances and our form and certainly our defence, that's the area we're looking to improve.
"We know if we start playing consistently, well the ladder looks after itself."
With question marks over the injury-hit Manly halves, Bellamy said his side had focused preparation on their own preparation.
That has also been interrupted with the club losing more than a dozen players, including key men Smith, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater, Jesse Bromwich and Ryan Hoffman, to representative duty.
"Basically it's been a week about us but that's probably what we need after our form in the first eight rounds," Bellamy said.
The Storm were also rocked by the announcement that due to salary cap pressure life member Ryan Hoffman would leave to play with the Warriors.
Bellamy said he hoped the upside was that they could hang on to New Zealand Test forward Kevin Proctor but he wasn't convinced that would be the case.
"You'd like to think that we'd be in a better position to hold on to Kevin but some of the figures I've heard bandied around, I'm not quite sure where we stand," Bellamy said.
Kieran Foran, Jamie Lyon (both knee) and Glenn Stewart (ankle) have been ruled out of the match.
Manly coach Geoff Toovey said he expected Daly Cherry-Evans to play after recovering from a calf strain suffered late in Australia's Test victory over New Zealand.
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