KEY POINTS:
The Warriors might have been calm before facing the Storm but their composure disappeared pretty much the moment referee Shayne Hayne blew his whistle for the first time.
Three times in the opening 15 minutes of yesterday's defeat at Olympic Park the Warriors made crucial errors to hand the Storm field position. The result was three slick Storm tries and a 14-0 mountain that was always going to be too tough for the Warriors to climb on their first visit to Australian soil this campaign.
"We made it too tough on ourselves," veteran prop Ruben Wiki said. "You've got to treat the ball like gold when you come to a place like Melbourne or you are going to struggle."
And struggle the Warriors did as the Storm punished their lacklustre and error-ridden start.
Fullback Wade McKinnon had an off day with his handling, contributing three of the Warriors' 12 errors in carbon-copy fashion by spilling offloads from Wiki.
McKinnon's first fumble handed possession to the Storm inside Warriors territory and the defending minor premiers capitalised with ominous ease.
Greg Inglis and Matt King shifted the ball left and the Warriors' right-side defence was found wanting as Matt Geyer burst down the touchline and fed Billy Slater inside for the opening try after just four minutes. Cameron Smith converted.
The Warriors then drilled the restart well over the dead ball line on the full to concede a penalty on halfway.
And when Manu Vatuvei was drawn in off his wing, his 17-year-old Storm opposite, Israel Falou, was left with a simple finish in the corner.
McKinnon then spilled another Wiki offload and Smith carved open the Warriors down the middle, allowing Ryan Hoffman to finish off a neat passing move on the next play.
Trailing by 14 points in as many minutes, the Warriors were in serious danger of being blown away in the opening quarter. Slater looked to have compounded their misery when he latched on to a clever Cooper Cronk chip and rounded McKinnon to cross between the posts - but Dallas Johnson was offside and the video referee ruled out the try.
Coach Ivan Cleary had seen enough, summoning Michael Witt to the sideline and switching Lance Hohaia to five-eighths.
The move, along with the introduction of Nathan Fien, Evarn Tuimavave and Epalahame Lauaki from the bench, seemed to turn the tide. The Warriors dominated the final 15 minutes of the half but, despite three repeat sets in succession, they were unable to crack the Storm defence.
"We hung in there and kept soldiering on," Wiki said.
"We told ourselves things would turn around but we made errors when it mattered and they were able to deliver the final punch."
Falou's well-taken second from Cronck's cross-kick 10 minutes into the second half severely dented the Warriors' revival, but they were at least showing signs of life.
Wiki's work rate was close to its phenomenal best and Tuimavave, Lauaki and Sam Rapira did plenty of damage up the middle as the game evolved into brutal physical contest. "It was a good tussle, I'll certainly be going home for kava," Wiki said.
Wing Michael Crockett went close to opening the Warriors' account when he narrowly failed to claim Grant Rovelli's cross-kick and Vatuvei and McKinnon made searing breaks that stretched the Storm's defence to breaking point.
Vatuvei finally crossed in the corner with 21 minutes remaining but, when McKinnon and skipper Steve Price fumbled in quick succession, Geyer sent King over in the corner to put the result beyond doubt. Slater then added his second before Rapira crowned an excellent personal display with a rampaging 20m run for his second career try.
The Warriors were well beaten but they remained unbowed, Wiki said. "You just can't give a quality team like Melbourne a start like that but we will learn from this and get better."
* Manly remained unbeaten when they beat Sydney City 30-8 yesterday.
