Penrith Panthers stun the Melbourne Storm 12-10

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS: THE problem for the Storm last night wasn't the missed tackles or mistakes on their own tryline.

THE problem for the Storm last night wasn't the missed tackles or mistakes on their own tryline.

MATCH CENTRE: PANTHERS v STORM

It wasn't even the granite-like shoulder of Penrith prop Nigel Plum, that seemed to be smashing men in purple jumpers into the middle of next week everywhere you looked.

As far as Storm captain Cameron Smith was concerned, the issue is his side are the defending premiers.

"The hard thing for us is it doesn't matter who we play - every game we play teams are up for us," he said. "I spoke to (Panthers forward) Clint Newton after the game and he told me they were working hard for this game. You come off a premiership - we're certainly not living on last year, that's gone for us - but the team that wins, they're the hunted."

Sorry, the line is too delicious to ignore ... last night the hunter became the hunted as Penrith bashed Melbourne on their way to a 12-10 upset at Centrebet Stadium.

It was the Panthers' first win over Melbourne since 2005, but meant more than that given the embryonic stage of a five-year plan they find themselves in.

It was the Storm's second loss in a row, having seen their 15-game winning streak snapped in half against Canberra last weekend, and means South Sydney replace them atop the NRL ladder.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy, ashen-faced in the post-match press conference and staring blankly in the rooms afterwards, was brutally honest about the sudden malaise the Storm find themselves in.

"We have to find that love of wanting to go out there and compete because we haven't got it at the moment for 80 minutes," the coach said.

"There were a lot of blank eyes in the dressing room at halftime. Whatever the reason, we're not excited about our footy at the moment.

"It's what they do for a living, it's what they choose to do, especially after the same sort of thing happened last week. We like to pride ourselves on bouncing back in those situations but there wasn't any bounce back tonight. I don't know what the reason is. I really don't."

Penrith led after 11 minutes when winger David Simmons pounced on a loose pass from Storm fullback Billy Slater and raced 80m to score.

They extended their lead eight minutes later on the other wing, when Travis Robinson scored from a Luke Walsh kick following another Slater error returning the ball.

When Simmons scored in the 25th minute, few would've predicted it would be the last time - and it would still be enough.

Leading 12-0 at halftime, Melbourne winger Sisa Waqa got his side on the board early into the second half.

Then a try to prop Jesse Bromwich - after Panthers fullback Matt Moylan had stripped the ball from Smith's grasp over the tryline - brought the visitors to 12-10.

The most pleasing thing for Cleary, surely, was how his players - wearing the chocolate and white jumper their forefathers had worn since their first season in 1967 - defended.

"There's different theories getting around about how you beat the Storm, but you can't give up too many points," Cleary said. "You can't beat them unless you defend well."

Cleary also paid tribute to the 7,803 souls who turned up to watch his side inflict the biggest upset of the season.

Surely, though, it meant something more to a team being reconstructed from the ground up, that's been widely panned for letting go superstars, that has narrowly missed out signing the likes of Thurston and Carney and others.

"Yeah, it's good," Cleary said.

PENRITH 12 (D Simmons 2 T Robinson tries) bt MELBOURNE 10 (J Bromwich S Waqa tries C Smith goal) at Centrebet Stadium. Referee: Gavin Badger, Alan Shortall. Crowd: 7,803.