Sep 24th, 2019

Sep 24th, 2019

Melbourne have stepped up their preparations for the NRL preliminary final clash with the Sydney Roosters by trying to replicate the enemy territory of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The Storm on Tuesday shifted training next door to Collingwood AFL club's oval ground and marked out a rugby league field, complete with posts and advertising boards, in an attempt to mimic the venue for Saturday night's clash.

Melbourne players outside the main squad also donned the Roosters colours in opposed drills.

High-flying winger Suliasi Vunivalu and second-rower Felise Kaufusi didn't train with main group due to soreness but aren't in any danger of missing the do-or-die clash.

Craig Bellamy (Getty)

Skipper Cameron Smith said it was about familiarising his team with playing within an oval ground and they would spend the week training there.

Melbourne have never played a club game at the SCG while Smith's lone appearance at the ground came over a decade ago during the 2008 Centenary Test.

"We've done it once before this year, against the Roosters at Adelaide Oval," he said.

"Since the Pies are now finished their season we had the opportunity to use that ground to try to simulate playing on our rectangle field inside an oval which we will be doing on Saturday.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy (AAP)

"It can be a bit disorientating and you can get a bit lost when you're out in the middle of our field, and then there's so much room outside.

"Particularly for the kickers, you can lose the sidelines a little bit."

The Storm named an unchanged line-up from the Eels game which Smith said was an advantage ahead of the grand final rematch.

"I don't think we had any issues coming out of the game so if we can take the same 17 as what we had against Parramatta that would be a huge bonus for us," Smith said.

One thing that does need to change is Smith's off-target goal-kicking with the hooker missing five conversions from six attempts on Saturday night - well below his season average of 79 per cent.

Smith took about 20 practice goals on Tuesday as he attempted to iron out the kinks.

"I will just do my normal preparation - I kicked really well at practice last week it just didn't go through the sticks" Smith said.

"Out of the six shots I had I only felt I had two I didn't hit well but with the others the radar was off.

"I've been really happy with my kicking this year so hopefully it's different this week."

Smith said his Storm troops wouldn't bother looking back as far as last year's 21-6 NRL grand final loss to the Roosters, with their two-point round 15 win more relevant.

"I'm not going to be focusing on the grand final - if I looked back at any vision or anything we've learnt from playing the Roosters it would be this year and in particular the most recent game.

"We've had two games this year - lost in golden point and won by two points in Adelaide so that shows the quality of both sides and that's going to be the same this week."

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