Newcastle lost far more than the NRL match against Melbourne on Saturday night with their skipper Kurt Gidley suffering a likely serious shoulder injury.

The Storm came home strongly in the second half of the AAMI Park clash to win 42-12, scoring seven tries and with captain Cameron Smith on target with each conversion.

The Knights started strongly and were well and truly in the hunt before losing their play-making leader.

Gidley, who was set to be named on Sunday in Australia's line-up to face the Kiwis at Skilled Stadium next Friday night, was forced off just before the halftime break.

He landed awkwardly when tackled by Storm halfback Cooper Cronk and immediately clutched at his left shoulder.

The 28-year-old tried to play on but couldn't and was assisted from the field.

It was reported on Fox Sports that he had dislocated his shoulder, which could also put the former NSW Origin skipper's ambitions on hold.

Following last round's loss to the Warriors the Storm were again under par, particularly in the first half as they pushed passes and made other uncharacteristic errors.

They still managed to hold a 18-12 halftime lead, scoring three tries to two.

No doubt on the end of a blast from coach Craig Bellamy, the home side lifted in the second half as Newcastle wilted.

They were also let down by too many errors and penalties at key moments in the game.

Melbourne's second-half tries were shared among Matt Duffie, Dane Nielsen, Billy Slater and Todd Lowrie.

Compounding the loss of Gidley, the Knights' in-form halfback Jarrod Mullen was put on report for a dangerous tackle on Kevin Proctor in the 32nd minute.

Knights coach Rick Stone said Gidley would go for scans on Sunday but it was believed he had "sub-luxed his shoulder out the back", which could be a partial dislocation.

He didn't know how long he would be sidelined.

"It's tough but that's footy ... any time we're going to lose our skipper it's going to be a significant blow to our team," he said.

He was happy with the effort of his side despite the scoreline blow-out.

"I think for the 80 minutes the effort was there, obviously we got a bit untidy at the back end of the game and leaked a few points ... but for the effort we put in the scoreline probably didn't reflect it."

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy didn't know what to make of his side's erratic performance.

"We were very happy to get away with the win, I thought we responded well in the second half," Bellamy said.

"We weren't overly happy with the way we played but after a bit of chat at halftime the boys responded well and did a really good job in the second half."

Smith revealed his men were motivated by pre-match comments by Stone, in which he said his team weren't intimidated by playing the Storm at home and talked about their weaknesses.

"They were direct comments about our team but it was nice of him to do that because he pretty much gave away their game plan - they were going to come through our middle and bomb our back three, something we weren't good at (against the Warriors)," Smith said.

"We know what we needed to prepare for and I thought we did a good job."

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