Young Willie Isa took a small step towards filling Israel Folau's very big shoes with a two-try haul as Melbourne beat Newcastle 32-24 in their NRL trial match at Princes Park on Saturday night.

Playing their only trial match in Melbourne, the Storm were almost at full-strength with World Cup stars Greg Inglis, Billy Slater and skipper Cameron Smith in their ranks, while the Knights left big guns such as Kurt Gidley and Steve Simpson at home.

With Folau departed for the Broncos and the retirement of veteran Matt Geyer, the Storm have two vacancies in the centres.

Joe Tomane and Will Chambers are the frontrunners however with Chambers (knee) only playing in next Saturday's final trial, against Brisbane in Caloundra, 20-year-old Isa took his chances against the Knights.

The former Penrith junior, who joined the club at the end of last season, grabbed two tries in a nine-minute period early in the first half as the Storm raced to a 22-0 lead against the shell-shocked Knights.

The visitors weren't helped by a poor kicking display by halfback Luke Walsh who blew three consecutive re-starts.

The remainder of Melbourne's six first-half tries were shared out, with Inglis also getting among the pointscorers.

The 22-year-old, who spent the early part of the second half in the centres with Smith playing five-eighth and Ryan Hinchcliffe at hooker, looks a man mountain.

Now weighing around 106kg, Inglis also appears to have lost none of his pace, or his strength as Knights hooker George Ndaira found out through a trademark Inglis fend as he raced to the tryline.

Both coaches made a raft of changes, both positional and in personnel, in the second half as Newcastle got the upper hand and managed to keep the Storm scoreless.

Centre Keith Lulia scored just before the 20-minute drinks break while Zeb Taia touched down with the converted try closing the gap to eight points, which proved the final score.

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy rested his No.1 halfback Cooper Cronk from the match with his replacement James Maloney, new to the club from Wentworthville, impressive.

Late in the first half Newcastle hooker Issac de Gois suffered a suspected fractured collar-bone, which could rule him out for up to six weeks.

Coach Brian Smith said it was cruel blow.

"He's a tough little fella and for him to not get up and then not continue to play I think, it's a bad sign," he said.

"It would be very disappointing to us all if it's fractured, he's just been so impressive."

Ben Rogers and Scott Dureau also suffered ankle ligament injuries, although Smith said they didn't look serious.

Despite the win Bellamy said he was disappointed with his side's second-half showing.

"We started off well but we didn't finish that well, we didn't look like scoring a try in the second half which is a bit of a worry for us, we need to do a bit more work on attack," he said.

"I didn't expect our attack to be super-smooth but I did expect it to be a bit better than it was."

Bellamy rated Inglis as his man of the match, while he said Isa, Kevin Proctor and Dane Nielsen also impressed.

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