"Definitely questioning": Are the Storm in danger of missing finals?

Samoa coach Ben Gardiner has given his assessment of the Melbourne Storm after their poor start to the season.

Despite back-to-back Grand Final losses and losing Ryan Papenhuyzen, Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Jonah Pezet through the off-season, there were still high hopes that they would be in premiership contention in 2026.

But after winning their first two games of the season, the Storm have lost four games in a row for the first time since 2022.

Now sitting 13th on the ladder, there is serious doubt as to whether they’ll miss out on the top eight for the first time since 2010.

However, Gardiner isn’t ready to write them off just yet.

However, he notes that they need to turn around their form quickly, particularly outside of their spine.

“I think that there's a chance that they do,” Gardiner told SEN’s Front Office with Vossy.

“They're gonna need to turn it around fairly quickly.

“I think the Storm need to look really carefully at their confidence and their belief, because at the moment, they're definitely questioning what they're doing.

“When something goes against them, heads drop, and they haven't got that belief that they can just come back like what they used to do.

“Previously, they could've come over the top of most teams in the competition.

“At the moment, they've got the firepower in their spine.

“I just don't know if they have the combinations across the rest of the park.

“They have been relying on young Sua (Fa’alogo) to score points for them, but there's also a lot of errors around him as well.

“So, there's that balance that they're trying to build at the moment that other teams, they're not having those errors, and they are getting those tries when they need them.”

The Storm will look to avoid losing five games on the trot when they travel to the nation’s capital to play the Raiders.

That match takes place this Friday with SEN League having live coverage of the match across our radio network and on the SEN app from 5pm AEST. Kick-off is at 6pm.