Newcastle player taken from the field with a potentially serious neck injury.
Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith showed his new contract is money well spent after steering the Storm to a 28-20 win over Newcastle in Monday night NRL action.
The Test captain scooted out of dummy half and slipped through a gap in the Newcastle defence to push the lead out to eight points with a little over 10 minutes remaining, thus sealing the game.
At the start of the clash, after earning a string of penalties, the Storm elected to take a shot for goal rather than
keep the pressure on the Knights.
However, Cameron Smith slotted the shot, despite having a below-par season with the boot to date,
and put his side the early lead 2-0.
Newcastle made the Storm pay for their mistake of going for goal quickly, as Jeremy Smith scored against the run of play, when the backrower collected a grubber after it rebounded off the posts.
As a result the Knights took the lead when Kurt Gidley practically threw the ball over the cross-bar for the conversion in the eighth minute.
Melbourne were under pressure again when they spilled an unnecessary off-load from Sisa Waqa on the 20 metre line.
And they looked set to make them pay quickly, however, James McManus just failed to pull in a bobbling pass on the wing in what would have been a crucial early try to the away side.
Melbourne had a try denied in the 16th minute when the video referee correctly ruled Jordan McLean knocked the ball on in trying to advance the ball as he was talked short of the line.
Setting a pattern for taking points when they were on offer, Newcastle took a shot and Gidley gave his side
a converted try lead.
Waqa then gave his side a chance when he raced down the right wing, after a quick turnover from the Knights as the home side drew level after 25 minutes.
Again on the Storm’s right-hand side, Cooper Cronk put Kevin Procter through a gap after he held up the pass beautifully, as the second-rower streamed through the gap and over the line to see the margin grow to six for the home side.
Melbourne began to run riot as Will Chambers bashed his way across and the game was quickly getting out of hand for the Knights at 18-8.
Again the Storm continued to find space on the edges as they kept streaming forward, as the home side looked to still have plenty of points in them as they led going into the break.
However, the game was held up with Alex McKinnon was treated on the ground for a suspected neck injury after he came down heavily at an awkward angle, resulting in him being taken from the field in a neck-brace.
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