A week of soul searching led to the Melbourne Storm ending the Panthers' eight match National Rugby League winning streak with a convincing 32-12 victory at Penrith Stadium.

A week after being humiliated 41-14 by cellar dwellers South Sydney, the Storm ran in five tries to two in a clinical display against a mistake riddled Panthers.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said the Storm was forced to take stock of its season after the Rabbitohs upset.

"We just sort of had a really bad week last week," he said.

"It's always the same whenever you get a touch up, especially a bit of an unexpected touch up.

"It brings the coaching staff back to reality and it certainly brings the players back to reality.

"We came out here really fired up to win tonight."

Bellamy said his coaching staff refused to push the panic button at training this week as they prepared to line up against a Panthers side that had moved to equal second on the NRL ladder.

"We refreshed the players up a lot this week, we didn't go out and bash them up because we played bad last week," he said.

"We sort of gave them some time off."

The match was an arm wrestle for the first 15 minutes as both sides traded penalty goals.

The Panthers got across the line first through Luke Lewis in the 17th minute but from then on, it was all Melbourne.

Tries by speedy backs Marcus Bai and Matt Geyer in the first half opened up a handy lead and then forward David Kidwell broke the match open just before half-time to put the Storm ahead 20-6 at the break.

The intensity dropped somewhat in the second half, although the scoreline could have been worse for Penrith, as the Storm had five tries disallowed.

Bellamy said he thought it may have been the week to get the Panthers.

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