Warriors halfback James Maloney will be out to try to inflict further pain on his former NRL club Melbourne on Sunday.

Maloney played a handful of games for Melbourne last year before moving across the Tasman and he has a reasonable idea of what the present mood in the Storm camp might be following two successive defeats.

"No doubt there will be some blokes there absolutely filthy," he said.

"They won't be happy. They will be up for a big game."

The defending premiers were pipped by Manly on Monday night, a week after suffering another narrow loss, to Gold Coast.

But while Melbourne might be hurting, so too were the Warriors, Maloney said, after they succumbed 12-40 to Penrith in front of their own fans last weekend.

"We're not happy with our performance last week and we are ready for a big one too," he said.

"It would be nice to make it three losses on the trot for them."

However, Maloney acknowledged that wouldn't be easy.

"Facing Melbourne in Melbourne would probably be the Warriors' toughest match of the season," he said.

He rated the Storm as the competition's benchmark, and pointed to how Manly only just scraped through against them 18-16 despite dominating much of the match.

"You have to play the 80 minutes," he said.

"We know it's going to be tough, but it will give us a bit of a yard stick of where we're at and help us going forward."

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