Melbourne knocked over South Sydney and possibly their hopes of an NRL finals berth with a thrilling 18-16 win at AAMI Park on Sunday.

There was no rub of the green this time for the Rabbitohs, unable to conjure up a second lucky last-minute victory after last week's stunning win over Wests Tigers.

Two tries by Souths winger Nathan Merritt, the second in the 72nd minute was the 100th of his career, set up a heart-stopping finale as the visitors tried to claw their way into the lead but time ran out before they could find the points.

"We weren't consistent enough over the 80 minutes," said coach John Lang.

"We were in a position to win the game and we didn't do it."

The loss leaves Rabbitohs in ninth on the congested ladder, with only 10 points separating 12 teams.

Due to meet high-flying Penrith on Friday night, Lang said he wasn't thinking about his side's precarious position.

"To be perfectly honest I'm not even worried about it, we've got three games to go and we want to win them all and we start next Friday night."

The Storm, anchored to the bottom of the table after they were stripped of all competition points when their salary cap cheating was exposed, continue to play like a team with a point to prove.

And with five members of the starting side leaving at season end, including superstar centre Greg Inglis who announced midweek he would join Brisbane, the side seems determined to send those players off on a winning note.

Coach Craig Bellamy said he was delighted by his side's defence after last week's disappointing loss to Manly, and also after losing forward Aiden Tolman (rib cartilage) and centre Chase Stanley (elbow) early in the match.

"They came home with a wet sail but we did a pretty good job of it.

"Certainly our defence was a lot better than the last couple of weeks, and after last week it was very pleasing to come out and play like that."

Souths started well enough and earned first points when Luke Capewell crossed in the sixth minute.

It was a bittersweet moment for the young five-eighth, whose grandfather David Capewell, who died last week.

However, as the rain started to fall, so did South's hopes of pulling of their second victory in 10 matches against Melbourne.

Both teams were guilty of plenty of errors in the greasy conditions but Souths paid the price for some lazy defence.

Five-eighth Brett Finch drew some defenders and got a ball away to Cooper Cronk who found Billy Slater on the charge, with Cameron Smith adding the extras for a 6-4 lead after 13 minutes.

Reserve hooker Ryan Hinchcliffe then got the first of two tries when he burrowed over from dummy-half, and the Storm took a 12-4 halftime lead.

Hinchcliffe's second two minutes into the second stanza looked to have put a nail in the Bunnies' coffin however they started to mount a fightback.

Merritt's crossed first at 65 minutes after a sweeping backline move and was then rewarded a benefit of the doubt try seven minutes later as Slater attempted to hold him up over the line.

Chris Sandow added the extras but in the dying minutes, there was no magic this time around.

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