Melbourne have marched to their 14th win in a row, shrugging off the travel blues to crush Newcastle 48-4 while maintaining top spot on the NRL ladder.
The Storm's first home game in 78 days was relocated late this week to CBus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria but the competition heavyweights put the disruption aside to continue their red-hot winning streak.
The Knights turned up with the wrong jumpers after leaving their blue strip back in Newcastle, forcing both teams to wear predominantly white, and the error appeared an omen for their night.
Melbourne were minus Origin stars Josh Addo-Carr and Christian Welch while the Knights had some big names out through injury, with stars prop Daniel Saifiti and halfback Mitchell Pearce missing.
NSW backrower Daniel Finucane was also a first-half casualty after suffering a head knock that ended his night after 30 minutes.
But it did the premiers little harm as they raced the clock in the first half.
They were up 18-0 after 18 minutes with Justin Olam, Cameron Munster and George Jennings collecting the early spoils, while fullback Nicho Hynes added the extras.
The Storm were out to a match-winning 30-0 by halftime with crafty halfback Jahrome Hughes and Hynes both showing their class to touch down to add to the tally of eight for the match.
Hughes left the field with a calf twinge after racing 65m from the Knights tryline to set up their sixth try, scored by Reimis Smith.
Coming off a big win over North Queensland in their last outing, the Knights had high hopes but their disappointing showing put a dent in their top eight ambitions and they now sit 10th with half the round completed.
They weren't helped by the loss of Maroons star Kalyn Ponga just before halftime with the fullback bumped by Melbourne's Dean Ieremia awkwardly into the shoulder of Tui Kamikamica.
Ponga went to ground but appeared to shrug it off only to leave the field a minute later and fail his HIA. The Knights also lost veteran prop Dave Klemmer to a head knock early on.
Newcastle's English import Dom Young made amends for two early errors to cross for his team's sole try, with the winger diving over in the corner after 55 minutes, but there was little else to celebrate for his side.
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