Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has put the Storm's gutsy opening round win over premiers Penrith in the rear-view mirror, rating their next opponents in the Warriors as another NRL title contender.
The Storm host the Warriors at AAMI Park on Saturday night after keeping the Panthers scoreless for the first time since 2022, grinding their way to an 8-0 victory.
The Warriors are coming off a disappointing 16-12 loss to Cronulla after leading at halftime.
But Bellamy said it was one win in a long season and highlighted Melbourne's ball control as an area for improvement.
"We're not getting too carried away with last week as we know that there's some things that we need to improve and we've worked on that this week," the veteran coach said on Friday.
"We just need the same attitude that we had as last week as it was a really gritty, gutsy performance.
"At the end of the day it's early and it's a long hard season ... it was a very pleasing performance and result but that's not going to help us this week."
Despite the Warriors losing at home, Bellamy believes the Auckland-based outfit are a quality team who will quickly bounce back.
"They had a blistering 20 or 30 minutes and then it just sort of settled down, and obviously Cronulla defended really well - it was a little bit like our game," he said.
"But I thought at the start of the season that the Warriors are going to be one of the teams that are going to be up there.
"They will be coming here pretty desperate and determined."
Superstar playmaker Cameron Munster will miss a second game as he deals with a troublesome groin injury but Bellamy believes he could be back for the Storm's round-three clash with Newcastle.
He said Munster had been able to string a few training sessions together this week without the injury flaring up.
"He just hasn’t done the amount of work and it has been bothering and a bit strange, sort of comes and goes," Bellamy said.
"So hopefully he has a bit of consistency in his training - the last couple days went good so hopefully he could continue on that and he might be right for next week.
"It’s been hard for our medical people to treat it. We’ll just see how he progresses."
Bellamy ruled Nelson Asofa-Solomona out for the Knights clash, saying the hulking prop needs more time as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
"Nelson needs to do a fair bit more training before he will come back into the NRL side so we will see how he progresses in the next couple of weeks."
Meanwhile, first-choice Warriors hooker Wayde Egan was ruled out late on Friday after being unable to overcome an elbow injury.
Freddy Lussick has come into the starting side, with Jazz Tevaga added to the bench.
