By Melissa Woods

Melbourne have sent an early message that they remain an NRL premiership force, thrashing Parramatta to stretch their round one win record under coach Craig Bellamy to a 23rd year.

There were question marks on the Storm, missing some key men due to retirement, injury and suspension, but the home side barely skipped a beat as they romped to a 52-4 victory in their Thursday night season-opener.

Bellamy remains unbeaten in round one since taking charge of the Storm in 2003 while it’s also the club’s 24th round one win in succession.

Although they were down on troops, Melbourne’s superstar trio Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant stood up, while prop Stefano Utoikamanu was almost unstoppable, clocking more than 200 run metres.

The Eels looked good for the opening 10 minutes and were first on the scoreboard, with new halves combination Mitchell Moses and Jonah Pezet combining to put Sean Russell across the tryline in the fourth minute.

They did that while down a man with J’maine Hopgood sent to the sinbin in the opening minute after his shoulder connected with the head of Alex MacDonald in the fourth tackle of the match, ending the Storm lock’s night.

But with the undermanned Melbourne forward pack making easy ground up the middle, the rest of the match was one-way traffic.

The nine-try romp by the home side inflicted the biggest loss of Eels coach Jason Ryles’s career, usurping the 57-18 margin also by the Storm last year.

Returning after off-season shoulder surgery, halfback Hughes had three try assists while hooker Grant scored two tries darting out of dummy half through sloppy Parramatta defence.

Grant went down midway through the second half and as he limped off the field there were fears of a hamstring injury but the Storm believed it was only a cramp.

Melbourne were up 18-4 at halftime but they upped the ante in the second half scoring another six tries.

Electric fullback Sualauvi Faalogo, who has taken the place of the retired Ryan Papenhuyzen, bagged two among the haul with his second bringing up the half-century mark.