The Melbourne Storm have tuned up for the NRL finals series by flogging a desperately poor Brisbane Broncos side 50-12 at Lang Park.
The minor premiers scored nine tries, with Will Warbrick and Jahrome Hughes both crossing for hat-tricks in a sublime display from the Storm.
However, the Broncos, whose season ended last weekend with a humbling defeat against the Dolphins, were truly awful, seemingly mocking coach Kevin Walters' pre-game pleas for them to play for pride with an insipid defensive performance in front of 35,086 supporters.
The defeat was Brisbane's seventh in their last eight games at Lang Park, and means the Storm have now won 16 of their past 17 against the Broncos.
Some of Brisbane's defence was laughable, the Broncos missing 49 tackles and the Storm racking up 12 line breaks to two over the 80 minutes, something Walters described as "not acceptable".
"It hasn't been there for most of the year, really," Walters said of the defensive effort.
"We took a lot of steps back this year. I'm just extremely disappointed.
"It's not acceptable what happened this year.
"Tonight, some of those tries weren't even near NRL standard. Not even Queensland Cup."
Despite that, Adam Reynolds said Walters had full support of the playing group, who had to hold their hands up for the mistakes and errors.
"I just need some time now to fix the place up," an emotional Walters said.
"I don't think [the performance] was up to standard.
"[Why?] That's what the next two or three days will be about. I've got some ideas myself, but I'm going to keep my emotions in check.
"We have enough talent here.
"We need to be better as a group and a club, than we showed tonight."
Will Warbrick scored two tries in three first-half minutes to set the Storm on their way. (AAP Image: Jono Searle)
Warbrick had a double inside the opening 12 minutes as the Storm tore the Broncos left side defence to shreds, with Hughes and Eliesa Katoa adding further scores before the 21-minute mark.
The Broncos hit back before half time through Josh Rogers, but there was still time for the Storm to add another before the break thanks to Harry Grant.
Hughes added two more scores after the break, as did Xavier Coates on his first start since round 17 before the Broncos added another consolation try, Jesse Arthars crossing after Katoa had been sent to the sin bin for a high tackle that could see him miss the first week of the finals.
However, the independent doctor ruled Sailor could stay on the field because there was no contact to the head.
That was not the only possible issue for Melbourne, who saw livewire fullback Sua Fa'alogo leave the field with a hamstring injury late on, having run for 208 metres and set up two tries, although Ryan Papenhuyzen is likely to return from bone bruising for next week.
"The medical staff don't seem to think it's too bad, but we'll have a scan and wait and see," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said.
"At a pinch, Paps could have played for us this week … the medical staff seem to think he'll be right for next week."
Warbrick — who ran for a whooping 301 metres, with five line breaks and eight tackle busts — had the final say in a dominant performance, completing his hat-trick following a wonderful floated pass from Hughes.
"I thought we bombed a couple of tries in the first half, we probably could have had a couple more," Bellamy said, while praising his side's performance.
The Broncos had the last possession, but dropped the ball to end the game, a symbolic representation of last year's grand finalists dramatic fall from grace.
Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog,
Thanks for the blog Simon, the Storm are looking pretty strong going into the finals - it'll be interesting to see how the rest of this round plays out and the make-up of the final eight
- Mike
And we'll be here all the way through it to sort out all the twists and turns, starting with Spoon Bowl tomorrow.
I look forward to joining you all then, and I hope you'll join me too.
Good night.
Adam Reynolds launched a passionate defence of Walters just then.
"We need to have a good hard look at ourselves," he says.
He adds that he's never seen as much passion as Kevin brings to the club every day.
On the defence.
"It hasn't been there for most of the year, really.
"We took a lot of steps back this year. I'm just extremely disappointed.
"It's not acceptable what happened this year.
"Tonight, some of those tries weren't even near NRL standard. Not even Queensland Cup."
"It's just been a tough year. A disappointing year, for everyone involved in the club," he says.
"I just need some time now to fix the place up.
"I don't think [the performance] was up to standard.
"[Why?] That's what the next two or three days will be about. Talk to the players. I've got some ideas myself, but I'm going to keep my emotions in check.
"We have enough talent here.
"We need to be better and a group and a club, than we showed tonight."
Speaking of coaches though, Craig Bellamy has hit a milestone there, securing his 400th victory as coach.
That's not a bad effort, really.
And some win with which to crown that achievement, too.
We will bring you their comments as soon as we have them.
Jahrome Hughes, who had a wonderful night, running for 125 metres, scoring three tries and setting up two more, has told ABC Sport the Storm did not expect the game to blow open quite as much as that.
"We knew if we could play to our strengths, we were going to do some damage," he said.
"We probably did a bit more damage than we expected to."
You bet your bottom dollar we're going to be hanging around for the coaches response, by the way.
We'll bring you those as soon as we get them.
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