Furious Penrith coach Matt Elliott stormed out of the coach's box before the final hooter, unable to watch his side sink to their third successive defeat as Melbourne triumphed 18-10 in an ugly NRL clash at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

In a frustrating, error-ridden affair, Storm skipper Cameron Smith kicked a conversion from the sideline with just over 12 minutes remaining to give his side the lead 12-10, and then winger Matt Duffie sealed the result with a try a minute from fulltime.

It was anyone's game until that point, with the Panthers looking more like rank outsiders for an NRL premiership than top-two contenders, leaving Elliott pounding the bench in the coach's box in bewilderment.

They barely managed more than 50 per cent of completions, with their attack often aimless.

The Storm weren't much better but at least they have the excuse of being unable to accrue any points due to salary cap rorting penalties.

The Panthers, with second place on the NRL table on the line, have no such reasoning.

Melbourne opened the scoring in the 22nd minute through centre Dane Nielsen, after Penrith star Michael Jennings badly misread the attack.

The visitors hit back three minutes later as centre Adrian Purtell touched down after a pass from lock Nathan Smith and the teams went to the sheds with the Storm up 6-4.

Penrith hit the front in the 59th minute as Jennings, who last week extended his deal with the club until 2015, made amends for his earlier defensive error.

The NSW Origin representative pounced on a ball that was dropped after Duffie went up for a Wade Graham kick in the in-goal.

Both sides were guilty of a series of turnovers but then the Storm held on to the ball to finally build some pressure with promising young winger Justin O'Neill reaping the rewards to lock up the match 10-10 before Smith's decisive conversion.

The victory was a much-needed bright note for the Storm, who had lost five of their past six games heading into this match as the fallout from their massive salary cap scandal continues.

The club this week also announced three of their first grade players, Ryan Hoffman, Brett Finch and Jeff Lima are heading to the UK to join Super League club Wigan while Brisbane is a hot favourite to gain the services of superstar centre Greg Inglis.

Elliott was calm but disappointed at the post-match press conference, saying simply mistakes had killed them and bemoaned their poor decision-making.

He said the fact the side was missing representative lock Luke Lewis, and then halfback Luke Walsh was a late withdrawal forcing a further reshuffle, had also not helped.

"Our lack of respect for possession at crucial times against a high quality opposition cost us, for sure," he said.

"We didn't give ourselves the opportunity to win tonight because of poor decisions."

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy finally had something to smile about, after a long month.

"Finally there was a little bit of reward for a lot of effort in the last month," he said.

"I was really proud of them. I think they're doing a wonderful job for the club."

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