Melbourne gained significant revenge over Manly in their NRL grand final re-match by virtually putting the Sea Eagles title defence on death row with a 22-8 victory at Brookvale Oval on Friday night.

Belted 40-0 in last year's decider, the Storm got partial payback by compounding Manly's season of misery with their sixth defeat in eight games to continue the Sea Eagles' winless run without star fullback Brett Stewart.

Greg Inglis took just over two minutes to put the first try on the board and after leading 16-4 at half-time the Storm proceeded to put the boot in the floundering Sea Eagles to claim a four tries to two win in front of 10,752 fans.

The Sea Eagles showed some fight with a second half try to Test winger David Williams, but even though they dominated possession they couldn't penetrate the Storm defence to threaten a late comeback.

It was Melbourne's fourth victory of the year and they now move to fifth place on the NRL table with nine points.

For the Sea Eagles, they drop to 13th place on just four points but could fall as low as 15th by the end of the weekend.

It is anticipated the Sea Eagles will need to win 11 of their remaining 16 games just to reach the finals and the task only gets tougher next week with a trip to ladder leaders Brisbane.

The only real positive to come out of the game for Manly was that stand-in fullback Michael Robertson ended his tryscoring drought for the year by crossing for the Sea Eagles' first in the 10th minute.

But incumbent Test forward Anthony Watmough came up with some errors which not only led to Melbourne's first two tries but could cost him when the Australian side is selected on Sunday.

Watmough gave away a penalty and missed the tackle on Inglis which led to the opening try and then dropped the ball shortly after the re-start from their own try that led to Steve Turner scoring for Melbourne.

Prop Matt Cross scored shortly before halftime to give Melbourne a 12-point buffer at the break while Billy Slater extended the advantage just six minutes into the second half to seal the victory.

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