Melbourne remain undefeated atop the NRL ladder following an unconvincing 24-10 victory over St George Illawarra at Oki Jubilee Stadium.

The Storm ran in five tries to two for their fifth straight win but struggled to put the Dragons away, Anthony Quinn's try with nine minutes remaining finally putting the 9,011-strong crowd out of its misery.

Already fielding the most inexperienced side in the premiership, Dragons coach Nathan Brown was forced to unveil another two debutants when Jason Ryles and Brett Morris (both shoulder) were late withdrawals and Luke MacDougall was dropped to Premier League.

Winger Tom Hewitt and hooker Ben Ellis took the tally to seven players Brown has been forced to blood in the top grade this season, the Dragons' early enthusiasm rewarded when they scored an early try through Wes Naiqama.

It was a rare foray into the Storm half for the home side who threw away the advantage of their surprise early try with a number of poor options in attack and a plethora of handling errors.

Initially the Storm failed to make them pay, the attack which ran like a slick Porsche on its way to last year's minor premiership resembling a Holden Barina with a misfiring cylinder.

Eventually the Barina got the job done, a Dan Hunt knock-on on his own 20-metre line allowing Steve Turner to celebrate his first start of the season with his first try.

Despite the fact they barely had a sniff of the opposition line, Dragons' No.7 Ben Hornby persisted with his tactic of employing chip kicks inside his own half.

Having got away with his first attempt, Hornby was made to pay for the second.

The Storm again attacked the right side defence and Billy Slater put Turner away for his second of the night to make it 10-4 just before the break - Richie Williams found wanting in defence on the wing after a leg injury forced Hewitt from the field.

When Israel Folau pounced on a Slater grubber to extend his lead at the top of the NRL tryscoring charts with his eighth four-pointer of the year the game looked over.

A 60 metre Josh Morris try breathed life into the contest but again the Dragons gave away a cheap penalty and again the Storm capitalised, Matt King with too much strength as he brushed aside Williams on his way to the line.

The small army of Storm fans and Australian Test selectors were given a scare when hooker Cameron Smith was left writhing in his own in-goal area clutching his left knee, but the Queensland Origin rake recovered to see out the contest.

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