Penrith have soaked up early pressure to steam to a 34-16 victory over Melbourne and consolidate their lead at the top of the NRL ladder, with young centre Izack Tago bagging a double.
The scene was set for a spicy battle in their Friday night clash at Marvel Stadium when polarising Panther Jarome Luai was put on report in the third minute for a tackle on Jahrome Hughes, with his Storm teammate Harry Grant taking exception to the hit.
The tackle on Hughes as he put up a kick was deemed late, threatening Luai's place in the NSW line-up for State of Origin III.
With a chance to move ahead of Penrith with a win, third-placed Melbourne had all the running early and led 14-0 after 26 minutes, winning the physical battle to keep the visitors on the back foot.
Their tries came from Grant and a suspect effort by prop-turned-back-rower Nelson Asofa-Solomona, with his grounding cleared by the bunker despite appearing to knock-on.
In spite of the commanding margin Penrith refused to be rattled and clawed their way back into the match to stunningly lead 16-14 at halftime.
Injured superstar halfback Nathan Cleary watched on as his replacement Jack Cogger again played with poise after some early attention from Melbourne.
Three tries within eight minutes started with a penalty try when Storm fullback Nick Meaney was ruled to have interfered with Stephen Crichton as he attempted to ground the ball.
Tago ducked under the defence to score and then a Melbourne bomb went awry with Scott Sorenson flicking a pass up to Liam Martin, with Crichton's conversion securing the lead.
While Melbourne opened the second half with a penalty goal to level the rest was one-way traffic.
Tago bounced off Storm winger Will Warbrick to collect his second and then put a kick through some tired defence for Zac Hosking to add their fifth for the night.
Winger Brian To'o then iced a convincing win, reaffirming their favouritism for a third successive premiership.
Sorenson was an early casualty with a neck injury while Warbrick also failed his HIA after the Tago collision.
