Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk scored a hat-trick of tries as the Storm crushed the Gold Coast Titans 40-16 on Saturday night at Skilled Park.

But the ruthless victory was soured after Cronk (left ankle) and winger Justin O'Neill (back) were forced from the field during the final 10 minutes of the lopsided match.

The Storm took an iron grip on the NRL minor premiership and equalled a club record 11 consecutive victories with their first win at the Robina venue from three attempts.

Cooper's kicking game was superb and he combined brilliantly with partner-in-crime Billy Slater, who bagged a brace of tries, to push the hapless Titans closer to the wooden spoon.

The third member of the Storm's "big three" - skipper and hooker Cameron Smith - controlled the play while backrower Sika Manu tore the Titans' defence to sheds in the seven tries to three victory in front of an 11,663-strong crowd.

Melbourne led 22-6 at halftime after Slater, Cooper and Manu ran riot against a Titans outfit missing a host of star players, including talisman Scott Prince (broken arm) and former Australian Test forward Anthony Laffranchi (corked thigh).

Preston Campbell wore the No.7 jersey and the captain's armband but had an unhappy night in his 100th match for the club as he inches closer towards retirement.

Manu ran straight at Campbell in the 24th minute when close to the line and the diminutive halfback had no chance of stopping him from scoring the Storm's third try that put the visitors 16-2 up.

Earlier Slater had picked up a spilt Campbell bomb and stepped his way through a ragged defensive line before offloading for Cronk to finish off a 98 metre movement.

They combined again on the stroke of halftime when Cronk returned the favour and set up a try for Slater with a magical no-look inside ball to the flying fullback.

Cronk added another two tries in a four-minute blitz early in the second half as the Storm raced to a 34-6 lead.

The Titans refused to throw in the towel as interchange forward Bodene Thompson and winger David Mead both touched down to the narrow the gap to 34-16.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy was proud of his players' achievement in equalling the club record but was left ruing injuries to Cronk, O'Neill and centre Maurice Blair (shoulder).

"It was a tough night that way but it's a contact sport and these things happen," Bellamy said.

"We equalled our longest-ever winning run tonight. If anyone said at the start of the year that we'd do that, they probably would've been laughed off the planet.

"But they've done a great job for us and while we had some flat patches tonight, we still did well enough to score 40 points."

Smith added: "I'm just really proud of the boys with their attitude at the moment.

"It's difficult enough winning two games in a row in this competition, let alone 11.

"Where we're placed at the moment, we couldn't have asked for a better run into the back-end of the year.

"We've won a lot of games away from home this year ... so this team can hold their head up high."

Titans coach John Cartwright felt the scoreline didn't indicate the gap between the sides.

"Just the polish that they have with those class guys (Slater, Cronk, Smith) was the difference for most of the game," he said.

"It was nice to see that we came up with a few tries in the second half and finished with a bit of confidence."

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