Coach Craig Bellamy may finally believe the Warriors are Melbourne's bogey side after the visitors ended the Storm's season a game short of the NRL grand final.
Melbourne hoped to cap a miracle season - coming after last year's salary cap saga - with a premiership but the Warriors ended that fairy-tale with a gripping 20-12 win in their preliminary final at AAMI Park.
They will now face Manly in the grand final in Sydney next Sunday, their second trip to the NRL decider after their loss to the Sydney Roosters in 2002.
The fearless Warriors were unlucky not to win by an even greater margin, dominating the minor premiers for the bulk of the match in front of 28,580 screaming fans.
They broke through for the try to seal the win with just three minutes remaining, when halfback Shaun Johnson raced across field, throwing repeated dummies before finding centre Lewis Brown who touched down.
Brown looked to have scored eight minutes earlier but the try was disallowed due to an earlier knock-on.
Five-eighth James Maloney added the extras, with the margin too great for Melbourne to peg back in two minutes.
Despite the Warriors' impressive win-loss record against the Storm, including a victory in Melbourne this season, Bellamy dismissed talk prior to the game of the Warriors having the wood on his side.
But from the opening whistle the visitors showed no fear of the minor premiers and could have led by more than 14-12 at halftime.
Melbourne did open the scoring in the fifth minute, through bullocking secondrower Sika Manu, but the Warriors weren't rattled.
They levelled seven minutes later, also on the back of a penalty at the tackle, when Johnson put a bomb cross field that Krisnan Inu was able to bat back for Bill Tupou to pounce on.
The teams then traded tries, before Maloney, a former Storm player, broke a 12-12 deadlock with a penalty kick as the teams ran to the sheds for the halftime break.
Both teams looked worthy of a grand final berth in a thrilling second 40 minutes but the Storm couldn't penetrate the visitors' rock solid defence; their usual attacking weapons like Billy Slater held in close check by the Warriors.
WARRIORS 20 (L Brown J Maloney B Tupou tries J Maloney 4 goals) bt MELBOURNE 12 (B Champion S Manu tries C Smith 2 goals) at AAMI Park. Referee: Tony Archer, Matt Cecchin. Crowd: 28,580.
