Melbourne seemed dead and buried against Parramatta on Monday night before pulling off a stunning comeback to beat the Eels 22-18 and take a stranglehold on the NRL minor premiership.

The Storm were strangely out of sorts at Parramatta Stadium, trailing 18-0 with 26 minutes remaining, before they sparked to life and posted four consecutive tries to steal the match from the hapless Eels with just four minutes left on the clock.

Parramatta, coming off back-to-back golden point losses to Penrith and Canterbury, appeared destined for an upset win they would have thoroughly deserved before the Storm roared to life.

In the 76th minute, stand-in five-eighth Maurice Blair piloted Queensland centre Dane Nielsen over for the clincher, before an unlikely hero stood up for the Storm as the Eels attempted a frantic last-minute raid of their own.

Winger Sisa Waqa had an awful night on the left-side for Melbourne - dropping the ball over the line in the opening minutes, before going onto fumble several kicks, including one clanger which led to a try.

But with time elapsed and Parramatta with one final roll of the dice attacking Melbourne's line, Jarryd Hayne kicked to Waqa's wing and the Fijian calmly batted the ball over the sideline.

After Manly's loss to Wests Tigers on Friday, the Storm have now kicked ahead by four competition points in the race for the finals.

The Storm's ferocious comeback was thanks to their 'big three' - spearheaded by superstar Queenslander Billy Slater.

Halfback Cooper Cronk put up a pinpoint bomb, before Slater flew through and batted the ball back for Waqa to begin his redemption and score.

A short time later captain Cameron Smith threaded a grubber into the in-goal for fullback Slater to swoop through and cut the margin to 18-12.

Then with 15 minutes remaining, Slater managed to get on the outside of his man off a scrum feed on the Storm's own 20 metre line, to send winger Justin O'Neill racing away to set up the thrilling finish.

Tries to Reni Maitua and Taniela Lasalo and three penalties and two conversions to Luke Burt set up the Eels with an 18-0 lead.

Eels halfback Jeff Robson has likely played his last game for the club before he moves to Cronulla next season after a sickening collision with Waqa in the fifth minute resulted in a depressed fracture to his cheekbone.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy praised the resolve of his players and the leadership provided by Slater, Smith and Cronk.

"After 50 minutes I knew it was a long day at the office I was feeling it," said Bellamy.

"We'd like to think we're a pretty mentally tough footy team.

"Whether or not we were going to win the game I don't think that was on anyone's mind but we certainly weren't going to give up and a couple of things went our way in the last half hour and we win.

"I think our big three or whatever you like to call them they certainly kept a cool head.

"The minor premiership is still a bit undervalued in the competition and it's a hard thing to win and we're in the box seat now people will say ... but we're not concerned about that at all."

Bellamy said either intentionally or by accident, Waqa had saved his best until the last second.

"He caught nothing else all night so I don't know whether he knew there was only 10 seconds on the clock but to punch it out that was his best play of the night by a mile."

Parramatta coach Stephen Kearney said his team have learned the hard way that close enough isn't good enough.

"We've fallen into a habit and it's one that doesn't sit well with us ... and certainly doesn't sit well with me," he said.

"We'll keep persevering, we'll keep searching for the finish line."

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