The Melbourne Storm have overcome a mounting injury toll to post a hard-fought 14-10 victory over a fast-finishing Cronulla Sharks outfit at Toyota Stadium on Saturday night.
Having built a two-point lead at half-time the defending premiers extended their advantage to 10 points on the back of an early Anthony Quinn try and two goals from the boot of Cameron Smith.
The committed Sharks hit back through prop Luke Douglas in the 70th minute to reduce the deficit to four points and set up a thrilling finish in front of a frenzied home crowd.
With less than 30 seconds on the clock, the hosts had one final chance to attack from a scrum 40m out from the visitors' line, but it wasn't to be for Ricky Stuart's men as Albert Kelly's attempted kick fell safely into Storm hands.
The win appears to have come at a cost for the visitors with Ryan Hoffman suffering shoulder and knee injuries in the contest to join Todd Lowrie (groin), Cooper Cronk (groin/hip), Brett White (shoulder) and Sika Manu (leg) on the injured list.
The Storm got the better of the early exchanges but suffered a major blow when Hoffman left the field clutching his right shoulder and headed straight for the rooms in the ninth minute.
It was raining penalties early as both sides attracted the ire of the match officials, with Luke Covell posting first points with a penalty goal in the 14th minute to put the Sharks ahead 2-0.
The arm-wrestle continued with neither side able to find away through despite both showing promising signs in attack.
Having awarded 10 penalties in the opening 20 minutes, referee Ben Cummins put both captains on notice but Sharks skipper Trent Barrett failed to heed the warning and was sent to the sin bin in the 34th minute for an infringement in the tackle area.
The Storm immediately took advantage of the extra man when Greg Inglis outmuscled two defenders to score the opening four-pointer of the contest from the ensuing set.
Smith added the extras from the sideline to put the visitors ahead 6-2 with three minutes left in the half.
The match erupted after the siren when Quinn and Paul Gallen became entangled, with Quinn placed on report for an alleged elbow once the dust had settled.
Scott Porter's penalty from the touchline reduced the deficit to 6-4 at the break.
The Storm increased the lead nine minutes in when Luke MacDougall crashed over after a sustained attacking raid that began with a brilliant run from Inglis.
Smith's second sideline conversion of the night made it 12-4 the hosts way with half an hour remaining.
The Melbourne skipper stretched the lead to 10 points with a penalty from close range on the hour, with Paul Gallen the man penalised in the play-the-ball.
Cronulla was desperately unlucky not to score their first try of the night soon after when Covell found space down the sideline, but momentum stayed with the Sharks who hit back when new recruit Paul Aiton sent Douglas crashing over and set up a grandstand finish.
Melbourne Storm 14
Tries: Inglis, MacDougall
Goals: Smith 3,
Cronulla Sharks 10
Tries: Douglas
Goals: Covell 2, Porter,
@ Toyota Stadium, 13/03/10. Crowd: