The stars may have been missing but Melbourne Storm still outshone the Sydney Roosters with a 21-4 win in their National Rugby League clash at AAMI Park on Monday night.
The Storm went into the match without skipper Cameron Smith, fullback Billy Slater, halfback Cooper Cronk and centre Dane Nielsen, all away on Origin duty with Queensland.
But they shrugged off their absence to consign the desperate Roosters to yet another loss - their ninth of the season - with fullback Justin O'Neill scoring a double.
To be fair, the Roosters were also missing their Origin big guns Mitchell Pearce, Nate Myles and veteran Anthony Minichiello, who was recalled to the NSW line-up for the second match on Wednesday night.
But on paper they looked the more formidable line-up.
That rang true early as they looked sharp and scored the opening try in the 17th minute.
But as the match wore on their frustration mounted alongside the error count.
The Storm led 8-4 at halftime before a penalty early in the second half extended the lead to six points and then the match turned fiery with players involved in some push and shove.
Roosters prop Frank-Paul Nuuausala was put on report for a swinging arm in a tackle which sparked the action.
The Storm improve to second on the ladder on points differential while the Roosters remain in 13th.
