Skipper Harry Grant and playmakers Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes had their best games of the season to steer Melbourne to a much-needed victory in Sunday's clash at AAMI Park.
The win was a relief for coach Craig Bellamy, who revealed last week he was battling a unspecified neurodegenerative disorder amidst his team's worst-ever form slump.
"Harry's game was just inspirational ... Hughesy and Mun (Munster), they just had a bit of a look in their eye where, 'OK, we're going to take control of this and we'll see the 80 minutes out'," Bellamy said.
"It feels better than the last seven weeks or whatever it's been.
"The Tigers were a bit down in strength, so that probably helped us too, to be quite honest, but what we basically planned to do and how we planned to do it, we stuck at it for most of the the 80 minutes and it was a good win for us in the end."
But there was a big blow for the Storm (3-7) with livewire fullback Sua Faalogo suffering a suspected facial fracture in a collision with teammate Hughes, with scans set for Monday.
Faalogo has been their sharpest weapon in attack with the youngster scoring 11 tries for the season, including the opening try of this match.
Melbourne raced out to a 20-0 start, looking much more like the Storm of old instead of second-last-placed stragglers.
Will Warbrick, Munster and Hughes had all crossed by the 12th minute with Grant making easy metres out of dummy half.
It was Munster's first try in 24 matches, the Queensland five-eighth's return to form especially timely with State of Origin selection looming.
With his brother Terrell May returning to Sydney before the match with his wife in labour, Taylan May dragged four defenders over the line to finally open the Tigers' account in the 25th minute.
Faalogo's injury came in the scramble to stop the powerhouse centre.
Grant was able to swing momentum back Melbourne's way when he burrowed across the line for a 26-4 halftime lead.
The Storm have had a recent pattern of second-half collapses but winger Warbrick's second try off a kick ensured the hosts got off to the best possible resumption.
The undermanned Tigers, however, showed why they've been one of the form teams of the season and May followed Luke Laulilii across the tryline to close the gap to 32-16.
But superstar Munster locked down the win when he combined with Grant and Hughes to cut through the defence to bag his second try of the day, handing West Tigers successive losses for the first time this season.
Coach Benji Marshall lamented his Tigers' poor start as they slipped to 5-4 for the season.
"It was tough. It just seemed no matter what we did, we couldn't find a way out of turning the momentum that they had," he said.
"You can't give anyone that sort of start, and what it creates is scoreboard pressure and you start playing a different type of footy to try and catch up and win the game.
"I was proud of the fight in the second half, but ultimately we just weren't good enough.
"Credit to them. They've been in a hole, they fought their way out today."
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