Two things were made abundantly clear in Melbourne's last gasp 17-16 NRL win over Cronulla at Toyota Park.

One, the Storm possess that certain quality that can see them jag a win without finding second gear.

And two, there's no way they can win the premiership without Cameron Smith at the helm.

The Test hooker was rested for the game as Storm coach Craig Bellamy persisted with his rotation policy, Smith's absence telling as the visitors struggled to overcome an opponent which had lost its last six matches.

In the end it took a Cooper Cronk field goal four minutes from fulltime for the Storm to claim the two points.

But even that wasn't without controversy as the Sharks were left fuming after Anthony Watts was taken out as he attempted to charge down the kick.

The decision was sent to the video referee with Steve Clark ruling in favour of the visitors, the loss extinguishing any hope the Sharks may have had of making the finals.

"You're not allowed to have a sleeper in the ruck and they had a sleeper in the ruck that took one of our players out," Sharks coach Ricky Stuart said.

"But that's the roll of the dice and we're not getting it at the moment."

The Sharks had one last crack at sending the game to extra time, Luke Covell's 45-metre field goal attempt into the wind dropping just in front of the posts as the Sharks slumped to their sixth loss by two points or less this year.

"The story of our year really, it just sums it all up, a bee's dick short," skipper Paul Gallen said of Covell's field goal attempt.

"We're that close every week, we turn up every week.

"A few of (the Storm players) said to me after the game, `you play like that next week you'll win by 40'."

Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he had no regrets about resting Smith - even at 14-0 down in the first half.

"Certainly 14-0 down wasn't a great thing for us ... but we learned a few lessons from last week," Bellamy said in reference to his side's upset loss to the Sydney Roosters.

"I think some people questioned (our gutsiness) last week ... but the way they hung in there and we certainly didn't have Cameron Smith directing us around there.

"I'm really happy with our last ten minutes, I thought we played with a level head there.

"We've got confidence in the guys we put in there ... we've got four games to go and I didn't want to rest (Smith) in the last month and I thought tonight was the night."

The Sharks were on the verge of a massive upset as they opened up their 14-0 lead, Henry Perenara going over on the first set of the match before Ben Pomeroy pounced on a Paul Gallen grubber to have the visitors on the brink of their first back-to-back losses of the season.

But the Storm showed just why they're regarded as premiership favourites as they recovered to score three unanswered tries.

A double strike in the space of eight minutes before halftime proved the turning point as Matt King scythed through for the first before tapping back a Cronk kick for Ryan Hoffman to scoot over.

The Storm then assumed their first lead of the match close to the hour mark when Israel Folau proved too big and strong for Paul Gallen and Adam Dykes, crashing over for a 16-14 lead before a grapple tackle penalty against King allowed Covell to lock it up with 11 minutes remaining.

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