Melbourne are counting on old combinations steering their new-look side to a win over the Sydney Roosters on Monday night in the absence of their Origin stars.

With big guns Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis away on representative duty, the door has opened for promising young players halfback Luke Kelly and winger Justin O'Neill, who will alternate with fullback Matt Duffie.

The trio were stand-outs in the Storm's 2009 under-20 campaign as the side won the premiership in a thrilling grand final against Wests Tigers.

They could have been stars on another stage with O'Neill a former junior national long jump champion and high-ball specialist Duffie, a promising high jumper as well as 200m and 400m athlete in his native New Zealand.

Monday night's match will mark O'Neill's debut, while Kelly played an NRL match for the Storm last season in round 19 and Duffie scored two tries in his debut this year in round seven.

Stand-in skipper Adam Blair said while the young players were inexperienced in the NRL, they had plenty of experience playing together.

"It's definitely an advantage and we've been trying to work on this week," he said.

"I don't think Matt Duffie's played fullback before, he's been on the wing, so we've been working on getting the timing right."

With such a young line-up Blair said it was important the Storm got off to a strong start, like they did against the Bulldogs when the Origin stars were also missing.

"We need to start well because I think if we don't we're going to be in a bit of trouble.

"With the players we've got out and the young ones in it's going to be hard to keep the boys focused so if we get out to a good lead and hold off and keep playing hard it's going to be a good game for us."

The erratic Roosters were at their worst against the Sharks, losing 42-18, but veteran Anthony Minichiello, who will play fullback with Todd Carney shifting to halfback to replace NSW halfback Mitchell Pearce, said they had put the game behind them.

"We should have been up for the Sharks and especially at our home ground so we were a bit disappointed with that.

"We spoke about it and got over it and moved on to this week," he said.

He said Carney was "excited" to move closer to the action at halfback and the side had confidence he could do the job.

Minichiello rated the Storm as one of the best NRL sides, despite their inability to earn premiership points due to salary cap rorting.

"They're going along pretty good and are still probably the benchmark for the comp with St George."

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