Melbourne Storm Coach Craig Bellamy has said his side needs to step up on Saturday night against Manly as they look to find consistent performance.
Melbourne enter the clash sitting in 10th spot on the NRL table, with a 4-4 record after eight rounds while Manly will travel south following a dominant display in Canberra which sees them sit in second place.
"Obviously we're four and four at the moment…in that context it is a big game, I'm not too worried about the ladder at the moment, I'm more concerned about our performances and our form and certainly our defence which has been spoken about a fair bit," Bellamy said when speaking to the media on Thursday morning.
Storm v Manly, the rivalry continues this weekend at AAMI Park on Saturday from 7:30pm. Book your tickets here.
"We know if we start playing well and playing consistently well, the ladder looks after itself.
"So I'm not concerned about that, I'm concerned about how we are playing and we need to step up tomorrow night."
With three of Storm's defeats coming under six points, the Storm coach was asked how far away he thought his side was from playing it's best football in what has been an extremely even NRL season so far.
"I don't think we're that far away at all," Bellamy said.
"We're just treading water at the moment, we need to start swimming. If we don't we're going to sink.
"We just need to get a little bit more consistent in some little areas in our game throughout the 80 minutes, I'm sure we can turn that around.
Fans can expect another close encounter at AAMI Park on Saturday night if the two sides' Round 1 meeting earlier in the season was anything to go by. Previewing the clash, Bellamy explained the Storm-Sea Eagles rivalry was good for the game.
"We've had a lot of close games," Bellamy said
"They are a tremendously resilient team the Sea Eagles and we'd like to think we're a bit like that as well but we've just got to show it at the moment.
"It's a good rivalry, good for our club, good for their club and good for the game."
