Andrew Webster lifts the lid on the Melbourne Storm NRL premiership production line

ANDREW Webster reports on the nuts and bolts behind Cameron Smith and the Melbourne Storm premiership production line.

SO let's get this straight.

Melbourne climb the mountain last September, win the premiership, but suddenly are faced with enough roadblocks to stop a tram that's come off its proverbial cable.

Coach Craig Bellamy doesn't know if he will stay or if he will go to the Dragons. He re-signs but admits the indecision has affected his coaching.

The first game of the season is the World Club Challenge in the north of England against Leeds, who have played three Super League matches. Captain Cameron Smith is coming off All Stars and halfback Cooper Cronk playing his first match.

They win.

They're home for round one against St George Illawarra Dragons, in a virtual heatwave.

They win.

They travel to the tropical delights of Townsville, to play the Cowboys, who have a playmaker called Johnathan Thurston, who they have just re-signed, who some are saying will be regarded as highly as Andrew Johns.

They win.

Grounded: Barba not on plane to Melbourne

They now head into the grand final rematch against the Bulldogs at AAMI Park tonight looking like the well-lubricated pistons in a Valvoline ad.

The Storm feared for the personal welfare of their players before this horror schedule - but what about the personal welfare of the competition with the premiers looking so ominous?

"You just come in and it's, well, a factory," Smith says. "Get our job done on the factory line, and we just churn out the games each week."

So it's like those Chinese sweatshops that pump out cheap T-shirts?

"No," he laughs. "We are allowed to have a little bit of fun."

So it's not exactly the Communist Republic of Craig Bellamy?

"It was like that in the first few years . . . Mate, we just get on with our business. The confidence right now is sky-high. We took a lot of confidence out of that win over Leeds and we wanted to bring that back here, knowing we had a particularly tough start to the season. It's just rolled into this. Everyone's on a high at the moment. Now we have to maintain it."

Bulldogs captain Michael Ennis has seen enough of their grand final combatants to realise the benchmark has been set high, and set early.

"They're all but robotic for Bellamy," Ennis says. "They just know their job. I mean that in a respectful way. They go out there and do exactly what their coach asks. You have to admire them."

When the boffins at the NRL carefully pieced together the 2013 draw, the prospect of a round-three rematch between Melbourne and the Bulldogs meant they could bank on a blockbuster. But each side walks on to AAMI Park this evening at different ends of the spectrum.

Panelists on numerous NRL shows are talking about back-to-back premierships for the Storm.

"It doesn't matter other people say outside the walls here at AAMI Park," Smith says. "We all want to do that, but we know how much hard work is in between round three and the grand final this year."

Meanwhile, at sunny Belmore, the worst possible scenario - aside from what's unfolding at the Sharks - has been presented to Des Hasler's men.

They have lost three of their best forwards in Sam Kasiano and Frank Pritchard to injury, and English import James Graham is treading water as he serves his 12-match biting suspension.

Then the Bulldogs' - and the NRL's - best player last season in fullback Ben Barba stunned all of us when he walked into training and reached out to Hasler because of alcohol and gambling problems sprouting from his relationship break-up.

In traditional Bulldogs style, Ennis says none of it can be used as an excuse."We've got a really strong group here, and it's headed by Des," he says. "What's happened with Benny hasn't been disruptive for us as a playing group - it was more concerning for Ben. (Chief executive) Todd Greenberg and Des got the team together on the day it broke and said, 'You have to trust us that we will look after it from here. You worry about your football'."

The unavailability of players has a silver lining. David Klemmer and Josh Jackson have been thrown into the rumble of first grade early. Drury Low had been training at fullback at times during summer in anticipation of Barba's ascension to Queensland duties this year. His chance has come a little earlier.

The Storm, in Melbourne, will be the ultimate test. Theories already abound that the compressed, up-and-in defence used so effectively by the Storm in last year's grand final win exposed the way to shut down the Dogs and their quick interchange of passes between their big men last season.

Speaking on Sky Sports Radio yesterday morning, Hasler gave a husky laugh when it was suggested a change in playing style was needed.

"If you're a footy tragic, and you look at the video, you'll find there's only a hand in the grand final," he said. "There was only a fingertip in it, so we've had to make a few little changes but none too much to be panicking too much."

The fingertip he refers to is that of Billy Slater, who extinguished a certain try to Josh Morris when he knocked the ball dead in the dying stages.

Ennis, too, dismisses any talk the Storm have shown the way for other sides to shut down the Dogs' attack.

"I don't think we have to change our style at all," he insists. "It's early days. We just need to keep chipping away. Nothing from our structure is killing us. It's our individual areas and final passes, the right option at the right time. It will come. We're getting back into our groove and I think we're showing enough at the moment that we're in a good place."

What's certain is that Melbourne won't be changing a thing. They will turn up tonight, with the Bulldogs knowing exactly what to expect but patently aware that stopping the machine is another thing altogether.

Smith knows one thing.

It would be that way whether it was the Communist Republic of Bellamy or not.

"I'm not too sure if Bellyache re-signing was a key moment of our season," he says. "The whole pre-season, when there was all that speculation about his future and maybe he was going to join the Dragons, it didn't interrupt our preparation. I know it affected him a little bit, with his coaching, and how he was going about his work, and I think he admitted that. Whatever decision he made, we were just going to get on with it this year. It hasn't made us a better footy side or made us play better football because he's stayed."

Like a well-oiled machine.