Manly claimed the scalp of NRL premiers Melbourne and stamped themselves as championship contenders with a hard-fought 18-16 win at Etihad Stadium on Monday night.

The win elevated the Sea Eagles to third place in a log-jam of NRL teams on eight points, two behind the leading Dragons, but left the Storm in unfamiliar territory.

They too are on eight points, in fourth, however before kick-off they had only lost successive matches twice in 111 games, and they hadn't lost at the indoor stadium in their past eight fixtures.

The Storm kept Manly scoreless in the second half, while tireless halfback Cooper Cronk scored twice, but the 18-6 halftime deficit proved too much.

They were left to rue an easy conversion miss by skipper Cameron Smith with 13 minutes remaining, who described the match as personally "one of the worst of my whole career".

Further souring Melbourne's loss was an injury to Test centre Greg Inglis, who damaged his ankle when he was tackled by Steve Matai late in the first half.

He is set to undergo scans on Thursday when the swelling subsides while fellow centre Dane Nielsen was a second half casualty with a dislocated finger.

While Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy was seething at his side's performance, foreshadowing personnel changes for their next match, Manly coach Des Hasler was understandably delighted.

He said defence was key to the win, which was their fourth in succession.

"We played some good footy and got some quick points on the board which you need," he said.

"They showed plenty of character and guts in some back-to-back sets in the second half.

"Melbourne had most of the possession and good field position and we were called upon to display some pretty good defence and we did just that." Melbourne were out-muscled and outclassed in the opening half by their fierce rivals, who they ousted from last year's finals at the same venue, 40-12.

Manly winger Michael Robertson was the first half star, scoring two trademark wingers' tries in the corner.

Their first try came four minutes into the match as five-eighth Kieran Foran put up a neat bomb into the in-goal which skipper Jamie Lyon batted back into the waiting arms of lock Glenn Stewart.

After Robertson's efforts, which came within four minutes, journeyman forward Bryan Norrie eventually got the home side onto the scoreboard when he ran onto a Brett Finch inside ball at the 30 minute mark.

Melbourne lifted their completion rate in the second half and Cronk's tries in the 66th and 74th minutes set up a thrilling finale, but they were unable to find the extra points.

"We were chasing our tails for most of the night," Bellamy said of his side's poor start.

"We lacked Manly's aggression defensively and our first three kicks were poor so we put out selves on the back foot straight way ... and all of a sudden they're 16 in front."

Bellamy said he would consider bringing Test prop Brett White, who is on the comeback from shoulder surgery, back into the line-up, as well as Sione Kite.

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