A rejuvenated Newcastle turned on a show for new coach Rick Stone to roll crisis-struck Melbourne 26-14 in a huge NRL upset at EnergyAustralia Stadium in Newcastle on Monday night.

The Knights left behind their three-match losing streak under former coach Brian Smith, who was stood down on Saturday, to leap from 11th to seventh with a spirited four-tries to-three victory heading into finals under a new mentor.

In a battle between two sides enveloped by off-field drama, the match was billed as test of mental fortitude and the Greg Inglis-less Storm looked dead and buried until they scored their first points in the 66th minute.

The newly enthused Knights donned busy and bright Indigenous jerseys and played with matching pizzazz and colour in front of a vocal home crowd of 13,580.

The Knights galloped out to a 18-0 lead by halftime and pushed out to 26-nil through a penalty then a converted Cooper Vuna try in the 51st minute.

But when faced with their worst defeat of the season, the Storm switched on with tries to Cooper Cronk, Steve Turner and Scotty Anderson within six minutes to make the scoreline far more respectable.

Newcastle were first to get on the board in the 11th minute when Adam MacDougall threw a brilliantly timed pass to send Keith Luilia through the Storm defence before offloading to halfback Jarrod Mullen who scored.

Storm fullback Billy Slater had a tough night at the office, making three uncharacteristic errors, the second blunder on the Knights goal line almost providing a gift try to the opposition.

Knights prop Mark Taufua made it 10-0 when he finished off a slick and creative piece of attacking play by fullback Kurt Gidley, who went on to kick five from five with the boot.

The Knights worked from left to right to score their third try of the opening half and the best of the match.

In a spectacular cross the park effort, the home side kept the ball alive with numerous miracle passes to bamboozle the Storm, the ball passing through at least 10 sets if hands before lock Matt Hilder came up with the try in the 36th minute.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy bemoaned his side's lack of effort in the first 40 minutes and their inability to get a recent win away from home.

"Our defence was really off in the first half, it was probably the softest defensive performance that we've put in all year and we paid the price for that," Bellamy said.

"I didn't know what to expect from them (under Stone) ... We were more worried about us and how we were going to go out there and our energy levels, they were pretty nonexistent in the first half.

New Knights mentor Stone was chuffed with his team's overall performance.

"We talked a little bit about the energy and the passion in the footy team and how that's been missing a little bit in the last few weeks and we displayed plenty of it," Stone said.

Obviously we got a little bit tired with that much football in the last 15 minutes, but (the win) it was exactly what the doctor ordered."

The Storm were hit with further bad news after the match with second rower Matt Cross suffering a right ankle injury.

While a break was ruled out, his season could be over because of ligament damage.

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