Craig Bellamy has questioned how much Melbourne want to win after they blew a double-digit lead for the second time in three games in the 26-18 NRL loss to Newcastle.
The Storm were sitting pretty after 10 minutes at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday night.
Fullback Nick Meaney opened the scoring by pouncing on a Bradman Best error and running 80 metres, before Trent Loiero barged over at close range.
But it was all downhill from there for the Storm, who bled three tries either side of half-time while forward Tariq Sims was in the sin bin for a high shot.
Melbourne never regained the lead despite enjoying ample chances in the Knights' red zone during the second half.
As was the case in last week's defeat of the Sydney Roosters, Melbourne's attack was hot-and-cold and in defence, the Storm missed 47 tackles.
Canterbury, the NRL's worst team in that statistic, miss 38.7 per game on average.
"It's probably as disappointing a 70 minutes that I can remember, especially 20 or 30 minutes in the first half," Bellamy said.
"We lacked energy, we lacked enthusiasm, we looked like we lacked communication. Disappointing.
"Not all the times but sometimes you wonder how important it is to them.
"I'm not quite sure where that initial enthusiasm and aggression and intent went. It was like it just got too hard or we thought it was going to be too easy."
It marked the second time in three games that the Storm had blown a double-digit advantage, having led Penrith 14-0 before going on to lose 34-16 in round 18.
Bellamy said it was not the first time this season he had questioned his side's intent.
"It's been a bit of an up-and-down year for that," he said.
"We've got to ask ourselves, how ruthless are we? How ruthless do we want to be?
"Do we want to be a good football team when we've got all the ball and as soon as you're going, or do we want to be a good football team in any situation? We haven't been that this year.
"The one thing I hate is inconsistency in footy teams."
