There was nothing out of the ordinary about making Melbourne's second-string side wear imitation Penrith kit, coach Craig Bellamy says.
The Storm will start Friday night's preliminary final against the two-time defending premier Panthers as rank outsiders.
The sight of Melbourne players going through their paces in Penrith's home jerseys raised eyebrows this week.
Panthers prop Moses Leota laughed when he saw photos of the session, calling it "weird".
But Bellamy gave a clip to the Melbourne media when asked about the ploy.
"If you guys come here a little bit more often you'll probably see that during the year," he quipped on Thursday.
"It's nothing new. When we face good opposition we just remind the players who we're playing.
"Having our reserve grade guys just wearing the T-shirts of the opposition, we've been doing that for 10 years. It's probably the fourth or fifth time we've done it this year.
"The idea is just to remind us who we're playing against ... what their strengths are and who their players are."
The Storm, a perennial powerhouse, would generally go into a preliminary final as favourites - or at least given a strong chance of winning.
But even die-hard Melbourne fans would be struggling to make a case for toppling the premiership favourites at Accor Stadium in Sydney.
Penrith got the better of Bellamy's side twice during the regular season, and are coming off a week's break following their convincing qualifying final victory over the Warriors.
The Storm pulled off a thrilling semi-final win over the Sydney Roosters last week as Cameron Munster and Will Warbrick combined for an instantly iconic try in the dying stages.
"Everyone was excited after the game, winning a game like that is special, but having said that we were probably fortunate," Bellamy said.
"Either team could've won it, but we did and it took a great play from Munster and Warbrick to score that try.
"It's given everyone a bit of an uplift, knowing that we can hang in and still come home at the end."
