Especially since the Canberra Raiders were coming off a tough loss of their own against St George Illawarra in Wollongong two weeks ago.

The Raiders lock was expecting a tough battle in Melbourne on Sunday, with the Green Machine sitting one win outside of the top eight.

Melbourne are third on the ladder, but are coming off a 28-6 loss to Cronulla and a 36-30 defeat at Manly - where they scored four tries in the final six minutes to make the scoreline respectable.

The last time the Storm lost three games in a row was in round 18 in 2015 when they went through a four-game losing streak.

It's one of only three times they've lost three games or more in a row since 2002.

"It'll be two teams that's coming off the back of losses so it'll be a real fiery game I reckon," Sutton said.

"They've had a couple of tough losses and so have we.

"It's going to be one of those games where it's going to be an 80-minute battle so we're going to have to be on our A-game throughout the whole game."

Raiders prop Joe Tapine said the Storm were always tough - no matter what - and this time would be no different.

He's feeling refreshed and reinvigorated after having last weekend off due to the bye.

The Raiders travel to Melbourne with an interesting recent record against the Storm - losing their past five games against the NRL powerhouse, while having won their past three against them in Melbourne.

Tapine felt the key to beating them was attention to detail - doing the little things right.

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"We definitely take stuff out of that. We did the little things really well the last couple times we've gone down [to Melbourne] so we've got to make sure from the start of the game we do that," he said.

"They're always tough. They've got big-game players so we've definitely got to bring our A-game and make sure we're doing everything little right.

"That's how you beat the Storm - you've got to do all the little things right so that's what we've been practising this week."

While they didn't win the game, the Raiders did have some success attacking the Storm's edges when they played each other the last time - a 30-16 Storm victory in Wagga Wagga - but the Green Machine weren't able to take advantage of their opportunities.

Tapine said they needed to be mindful of Queensland hooker Harry Grant's run out of dummy half as well.

"Yeah we were talking about it [attacking their edges]," Tapine said.

"Our ruck speed was pretty good against them last time, but our ruck defence needs to improve especially with Harry Grant [coming] out of that position.

"So that's a key that we'll be working on."

NRL ROUND 18

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Melbourne, 4.05pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. James Schiller, 16. Adam Elliott, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Brad Schneider, 19. Ata Mariota, 20. Corey Harawira-Naera, 21. Emre Guler, 22. Albert Hopoate.

Storm squad: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen, 2. Nick Meaney, 3. Marion Seve, 4. Justin Olam, 5. Dean Ieremia, 6. Cameron Munster, 7. Jahrome Hughes, 8. Jesse Bromwich, 9. Harry Grant, 10. Nelson Asofa-Solomona, 11. Felise Kaufusi, 12. Kenny Bromwich, 13. Josh King. Interchange: 14. Tyran Wishart, 15. Tui Kamikamica, 16. Alec MacDonald, 17. Jordan Grant. Reserves: 18. Jayden Nikorima, 19. Chris Lewis, 20. Tom Eisenhuth, 21. Young Tonumaipea, 22. Bronson Garlick.

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