Melbourne captain Cameron Smith is wary of a Warriors outfit he says will have no fear of travelling to AAMI Park for next weekend's NRL preliminary final.

The Storm had the luxury of sitting back and watching the Kiwi side's shock 22-20 victory over hot favourites the Wests Tigers on Friday night.

Melbourne's next opponents might have been unexpected, but Ivan Cleary's men will also be undaunted, having notched an upset finals win in the Victorian capital already, in 2008.

The Warriors famously became the first eighth-placed side to knock off the minor premiers with an 18-15 victory in week one of that year.

"They travelled to Melbourne earlier in the year and they beat us over here (18-14 in round seven)," Smith told DMG radio's The Sin Bin on Saturday.

"They always seem to be able to get up for us.

"I think they just really enjoy the challenge of playing against us.

"We didn't really have a preference of who we played because, the Warriors, they really have no fear of coming to Melbourne."

The Warriors came back from 18-6 down on Friday night at the Sydney Football Stadium with centre Krisnan Inu scoring a bizarre 78th-minute clincher that broke Tigers' players' and fans' hearts.

Smith said that would give the Warriors a massive confidence boost.

"You heard them talk all week about how they were going to come out and play a different style of footy (after last weekend's defeat to Brisbane)," Smith said.

"They wanted to be a bit tougher and they showed that last night.

"To come from 18-6 down against Wests Tigers, particularly the way they're playing and the way Benji (Marshall's) playing, was a great effort.

"They seem to find a way to score late tries like that.

"They did it to us in 2008 in the first final."

Smith said the week off had benefited the Storm, who downed Newcastle 18-8 last week.

"Having the week off is a huge bonus just to get some injuries right and get over some bumps and bruises but, if you go too light, I think you can sort of fall off the pace of the team you're going to be playing the next week," he said.

"They'll take a bit more time to recover because, obviously, they played last night.

"But they're still in a bit of a flow of things with their footy and they're going to be coming with a lot of confidence, so we need to make sure that we're doing something."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP