The Roosters have slipped to second-last on the NRL ladder after a 28-12 loss to the Melbourne Storm at Bluetongue Stadium in Gosford on Monday night.

The five tries-to-two defeat is the Roosters' fourth loss in five weeks while the Storm, with eight players backing up from representative duty, cemented their place in the top eight.

Eels reject Brett Finch scored his first try in Storm colours in the closing minutes to seal the win for the visitors.

There was little joy for Craig Fitzgibbon who was celebrating his 250th first grade game while Mark O'Meley took no part in the match.

The Roosters suffered another blow when hooker James Aubusson was forced to leave the field with a knee injury that could see him out for at least two weeks, while Finch was placed on report for sliding across boot first trying to defend a try.

The referees struggled to maintain discipline around the ruck area early on, Storm winger Steve Turner wore referee Tony De Las Heras' frustration and was sin-binned just 10 minutes in and Willie Mason followed for the Roosters in the 25th minute.

Setaimata Sa opened the Roosters' account in the 13th minute when he finished a sweeping cross-field movement set up by halfback Mitchell Pearce.

The Storm levelled scores at six-all when Brett White, who was the beneficiary of a defensive error by Sia Soliola, touched down under the posts in the 20th minute.

Steve Turner made it 10-6 for the visitors when he crashed over in the 36th minute and Ryan Hoffman scored just before halftime and Joseph Tomane converted to send their side into the break with a comfortable 10-point buffer.

The Roosters needed to be the first to get points on the board in the second-half to stay in the match and Sa delivered a brilliant cut-out pass to put winger Sam Perrett over in the 43rd minute.

Fitzgibbon nailed the conversion from the sideline, his second of the night, to send the Gosford crowd of 8,412 into raptures.

But the Storm had the margin back out to 10 points with 22 minutes to go when prop Jeff Lima found the chalk, the phase after White had been held up over the line.

Storm fullback Joseph Tomane kicked four from five for the match.

The Roosters were awarded the first five penalties of the match, then after Turner's sin-binning for offside, the Storm were awarded nine straight, mostly for ruck infringements.

But Roosters coach Brad Fittler said he had no problem with the refereeing or with two players being sent to the bin.

"That (penalty count) was disappointing ... we've got to look at our discipline, it's happening every week and we'll take it from there," Fittler said.

"It's about time they (referees) started to do something, it gets boring hearing them threaten people and them not doing anything about it.

"I was pretty happy with the effort, I thought they tried really hard, they were actually too good for us, they wore us down and when they get into the front they've got that ability to keep going."

Storm coach Craig Bellamy thought Turner and Mason's sin-binning was pretty tough.

"If they're going to go down that line, if you're going to sin-bin (a player) for repeated (team) infringements, perhaps it should be five minutes instead of ten, ten's a huge penalty," Bellamy said.

"It was evened up tonight when Willie went to the sin-bin but I think it's a huge penalty for that."

Bellamy, who congratulated Fitzgibbon on his milestone after the match said: "He's always been one of my favourite players to watch, one of the real good guys of the game and to get 250, and especially with the way he plays ... he puts his head where you wouldn't put your foot at times."

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