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The Melbourne Storm celebrate - Source: Getty Images -
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Melbourne overcame the loss of injured trio Greg Inglis, Ryan Hoffman and Dallas Johnson to post an unconvincing 30-10 win over Cronulla in Saturday's NRL clash at Olympic Park.
Four second-half tries in 10 minutes broke the match open for the Storm against the tiring Sharks, who were hit by several injuries during the game which limited their interchange options.
The win leaves the Storm in the top four, while the Sharks remain at wooden spoon peril.
Inglis was a late withdrawal from the Melbourne side because of a groin problem, with Johnson (shoulder) and Hoffman (hamstring) both failing to recover from injuries picked up against Parramatta on Monday.
But the Storm still took a slender advantage to the break, thanks to the only try of the half to Inglis' replacement Brett Anderson in the 15th minute.
Anderson ran on to a neat one-handed pass from fullback Billy Slater to register the only points of an error-strewn opening 40 minutes.
A Cameron Smith penalty helped the Storm move to a 6-0 lead early in the second half, before the Sharks squared things up with a converted try from winger Luke Covell on 54 minutes.
But tries in quick succession to Melbourne's Joseph Tomane, Ryan Hinchliffe, Anderson's second and centre Will Chambers put the match beyond doubt, despite the Storm struggling for rhythm throughout.
Winger Blake Ferguson scored a consolation try for the Sharks in the 73rd minute, but Smith restored the margin with a converted try inside the final three minutes.
The Sharks' job was made difficult as they lost four players for varying stints because of injury, including playmaker Trent Barrett when accidentally struck in the head by Storm prop Brett White's hip during a second-half tackle.
Barrett appeared momentarily dazed and fell over soon after, but recovered to play out the match.
Not so fortunate was Sharks centre Matt Wright, who took no further part after a high tackle from Storm prop Jeff Lima which was put on report by the referees.
Wright was left prone on the ground for several minutes after the tackle by Lima and Melbourne skipper Smith.
While Wright got up and walked off under his own steam, he did not play any further part in the match.
