Melbourne will try to simulate the Suncorp Stadium noise at training this week, admitting the unaccustomed roar of the crowd affected their attack in their NRL finals win over Parramatta.
The Storm looked rattled and trailed the Eels 10-0 early on but piled on four second-half tries for a 36-24 victory to book a preliminary finals berth and earn a week's rest.
Melbourne assistant coach Jason Ryles said the players took a while to adjust to the noise of 16,000 fans in Brisbane, which was their biggest crowd of the COVID-restricted season.
With Victoria still in lockdown, and the club based on the Queensland Sunshine Coast, they will also play their 'home' preliminary final at Suncorp.
"The boys aren't used to that level of noise after the COVID games but it's given us something to work on this week, and we will simulate that at training and prepare for our next game," Ryles said.
"Getting a bit of noise in and around training is something that we can look at as the players did say early on that it was something they had to adjust to in relaying calls and communicating with each other."
Ryles said having a week off was a major blessing after the condensed season, with 18 rounds straight plus the increased speed and intensity of matches following rule changes.
"It's huge - the biggest reflection of it is Parramatta this week with both their wingers going down," he said.
"They will be pretty bumped and bruised and they would have loved to have had the week off so we're very fortunate."
He said that injured playmaker Cameron Munster would have been unlikely to feature if the Storm had been required to face South Sydney in the elimination final on Saturday night but is good to go for the following weekend.
They will face one of last year's grand finalists, Canberra or the champion Sydney Roosters, on Friday week.
Ryles said defence has been a major focus at training this week with head coach Craig Bellamy unhappy with the amount of points the Storm have been conceding.
"It was really disappointing to let that many points in and we've been doing it the last couple of weeks," Ryles said.
"It's not a trend we'd like to keep going, or one that Craig is very happy with, so it's put the whole group on edge."
