Despite running with the aid of a strong breeze in the second half, Melbourne was held scoreless as its dysfunctional attacking unit failed to click.

The Storm's nightmare was finally over when Chris Lawrence ran 70m for his second try of the night off a brilliant Benji Marshall set-up in the final minute.

But it was in the sheds before the game that the true inspiration for the win was garnered, Beetson on hand to receive the team of the century blazer he failed to pick up when he snubbed last year's gala ball giving the Tigers the belief to conquer their more fancied opponents.

''When a guy of Artie Beetson's stature speaks, you tend to listen,'' Tigers captain Robbie Farah said.

''He came in and told us it's not always [about] the team of champions. You go out there and you work for each other and work for your mate next to you.

''A name on a piece of paper doesn't really matter. We did that tonight. We showed up to tackle and when times got tough we worked hard.

''In the past we've probably looked to win games by outscoring teams, but it's good to win a game on defence.''

Coach Tim Sheens refused to rank the defensive effort over past efforts.

''It was good, we're not getting carried away with it but we've been bagged when we haven't tackled well so I'll give credit when we have,'' he said.

The normally-deadly Storm attack was made to look impotent by a desperate Tigers defence, the visitors paying the price for blowing several gilt-edged opportunities. Down 10-6 at the break the Storm looked like it had equalised in the 62nd minute when youngster James Maloney found an unmarked Anthony Quinn on the left flank, but referee Shayne Hayne called the play back for a forward pass.

Melbourne's best opportunity came from 5m out from its own line in the 50th minute when Quinn grabbed an intercept, the NSW Origin winger ignoring a galloping Greg Inglis in support with the defensive line scrambling.