A blistering opening 20 minutes has laid the platform for Melbourne's emphatic 40-14 NRL win over Newcastle at AAMI Park.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy laid down the law midweek about their stuttering attack after two successive losses and the Storm responded in style on Friday night.
As well as three early tries, the defending champions completed 13 from 13 sets and had 82 per cent of possession.
"I was really happy with our attack tonight," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
"We only scored one try in two weeks and all of a sudden we scored seven tries tonight and completed at 80 per cent.
"In the last four weeks we completed at 60-something per cent so you don't have to be rocket scientist to work out what works."
With Ryley Jacks taking over the halfback duties from the axed Brodie Croft, the Storm looked more composed and skipper Cameron Smith had one of his best matches of the season.
Their big men Jesse Bromwich and Nelson Asofa-Solomona were also outstanding, doing plenty of damage through the middle.
Smith said the coach's message for the team was to focus on enjoying themselves rather than trying to force themselves to play well.
"The mindset of the players was totally different," Smith said.
"The message was just go out and enjoy playing football together and you probably saw a lot more expansive football played because of that."
Melbourne took an 18-8 lead into the break as the visitors finally found their feet, with second-rower Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Ken Sio collecting tries to close out the half.
Newcastle halfback Mitchell Pearce again underlined his NSW Origin credentials with a hand in both tries - the second including a long bullet pass to Sio that caught the Storm defence short.
Melbourne's wingers Josh Addo-Carr and Suliasi Vunivalu were in the thick of the action, both scoring a try in each half to bookend a try by prop Tim Glasby.
The Knights, who sat two places ahead of Melbourne in seventh heading into the match, continued to toil hard, with Kalyn Ponga again among their best.
Newcastle coach Nathan Brown said his team were chasing their tails after the Storm's fast start.
He praised the home side's defence, holding up his team over the tryline a number of times.
"They had 17 sets at 100 per cent and we'd had the ball for a linebreak and throw on the ground so that obviously took a lot of juice out of us," Brown said.
"They're a very, very good football team."
