They now sit three wins clear of the chasing pack with three games to play and another premiership is well and truly at their mercy, while the Roosters will rue the one that got away and a second-straight loss that still leaves them with work to do to finish in the top four.

Storm captain Cameron Smith was quick to marshall his troops after their latest win, and deliver the message that this side was better still than what they've already shown this season.

Had Stimson not crashed over for the matchwinner, the Roosters would be just one game shy of Melbourne on the ladder after Luke Keary's late field goal looked to have helped pinch a rare win in Victoria.

"We're at absolutely no stage thinking it's us and then daylight, absolutely no way," Smith said.

"It just shows we've been a little bit more consistent than the other sides in the competition this year, that's why we're six points ahead.

"Sitting in the sheds tonight I know everyone isn't completely happy with where we're at with our performances. We know that that could've gone either way tonight.

"It's a very, very tight field, more so up the top of the ladder.

"Looking at some of the other teams in the comp at the moment, the Broncos are playing some great footy. They're three games off us but if we were to play them this week or next week they might get two points off us."

This match was fitting of the late drama which decided it.

Billed as the heavyweight clash of the season, it had a little bit of everything - superb defence from both teams, a controversial penalty try and a bizarre attempt by Suliasi Vunivalu to leap over two defenders while returning a kick off his own line.

He was put on report for the incident, which was one of the most outrageous attempts to beat a tackler ever seen on a modern rugby league field.

"It was something that you shouldn't see in rugby league," Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.

"How do you comment on that. Haven't seen it in the game before, it's not for me to comment, it's for you guys to write about."

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy was equally perplexed by Vunivalu's acrobatics.

"I'm not quite sure what Suli was trying to do there, it was probably a bit of a brain fade or snap, whatever you want to call it," Bellamy said.

"Hopefully he learns a lesson and he doesn't do it again.

"It's a penalty without a doubt but I don't know what they're going to charge him with. I don't think he did any damage, they're probably scratching their heads at the moment wondering what it was."

Vunivalu, who was in the thick of the action all game, was awarded a penalty try in the 25th minute when Latrell Mitchell was adjudged to have denied the Storm winger a try-scoring opportunity as he chased a kick.

"I thought there was too much doubt for it to be a penalty try," Robinson said.

"We played well, I thought it was an improvement on last week. Some stuff there at the end, if we wanted to finish the game we should've finished it off a bit better.

"There's a couple of things that we should've done better and that's what we need to learn going into next week."

Roosters winger Blake Ferguson landed painfully on his shoulder midway through the first half but was able to play out the game.