IF THERE was any doubt that Melbourne and St George Illawarra do not like each other, then it was well and truly dismissed last night. The two teams produced scenes rarely seen on a rugby league field nowadays with biff, brawls, send-offs and sin-binnings, kicking and stompings highlighting a spiteful encounter at Olympic Park.

The match, which the Storm eventually won 26-0, was supposed to be all about the third square-up this year between Greg Inglis and Mark Gasnier, which had been hyped as a return bout between two heavyweights. The pair had met twice previously, both at state-of-origin level, earlier this year, but the clash last night was certainly no Thriller in Manila. It was Israel Folau on the other side of the field who took all the attention with another stand-out performance.

Rain and a high intensity meant there were few opportunities for the pair to show their wares.

Inglis said there were few opportunities and Storm half-back Cooper Cronk agreed: "It was very physical and a game that was played in the middle third and the conditions didn't help. On a dry pitch those two blokes are sensational, and pretty hard to stop one-on-one but the game was limited with the conditions and physical nature."

In its place, arose a battle with all members of both teams face off several times throughout the game. The history of spite between the two clubs goes back a long way — to that moment in the 1999 grand final when the Storm was awarded a penalty try.

In 2000, Dragons' resident motormouth Anthony Mundine claimed the Storm was not the rightful premier. The so-called pretender went on to punish Mundine and his teammates to the tune of 70-10 for such disrespect.

This season Melbourne, which had nine players missing on state-of-origin duties, was beaten by the Dragons, who celebrated as though they had won a grand final. Last night was seen as a chance to set the record straight.

"They were carrying on like they had won a premiership, so it was good (to beat them)," said Storm back-rower Jeremy Smith, who will join the Dragons next year. He sparked another to-do, this time only with a push and shove, when he threw a ball at Justin Poore after scoring a second-half try.

But, it was in the first half that the game erupted into a blur of thrown fists that resulted in the Storm's Billy Slater and Adam Blair and the Dragons' Jamie Soward sent to the sidelines for 10 minutes.

It all started when Soward took exception to a tackle from Cronk — the two getting into a fight after Cronk's arm appeared to slip around the Dragon playmaker's neck. It was all on from there with players from both teams rushing in to join the action with Slater among the most enthusiastic — trading punches with Dragons winger Jason Nightingale.

Another flare-up started seconds later with Blair this time in the thick of things. The upshot of it was the Storm was left with 11 men against the Dragons' 12. Melbourne was down to 10 for a few moments when Crocker was knocked senseless trying to tackle Jason Ryles and instead copped the big prop's thigh in the head.

Crocker was sent sprawling to the ground and spent the next few moments staggering. On instinct, he tried to get back into the defensive line. While it was his second Trevor Berbick impersonation within a month — he was also knocked out by the football in the origin decider — after a quick examination by medical staff, Crocker showed a boxer's rate of recovery to overcome the spaghetti legs and man up again in defence.