It was a sense of déjà vu but sadly the ending was not the same on Saturday night.
Against the Cowboys three weeks ago a young Storm side was able to overturn a 10-nil early deficit into a memorable win.
They again found themselves 16-0 down after just 22 minutes but on this occasion the rabbit in the hat was nowhere to be found.
Rivalry continues! Melbourne v Manly, July 30. Book now!
While there was once again plenty for Storm fans to be optimistic about, there was understandably a tinge of frustration at the result.
“We started slow to be quite honest, dipping the toe in a touch and it cost us dearly,” Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
“These guys have had a lot to do with where we have got to this year, we just need them to do that every week, no matter who is playing with us.
“It was always going to be a tough ask tonight without a doubt but we honestly didn’t give ourselves a chance. When we got ourselves back in the game it was 6-all for 50 minutes so we can do it, we just didn’t choose to do it at the start of the game.
“I thought from 10 minutes to go in the first half we started to get in our stride and started competing with them then.
“Our young team did a good job but I’m sure if we had of started the game better we could have done that sort of job for a bit longer and that was the disappointing part.”
Jesse Bromwich shared his coaches sentiments with a thought to what might have been had the costly start not occurred.
“The main thing for us as a team is to learn from that. We’ve probably done that a couple of times during the Origin period,” Bromwich said.
“I’m not sure if it is an experience thing or not but you just can’t go dipping your toe in against a full strength Eels team.
“They put a few points on us early there. I agree 100 per cent with Craig, for 50 minutes there we were as good as them, if not better but you just can’t go throwing the game away at the start there.”
Storm will now head into a bye week before heading to Canberra to take on the Raiders on July 22.