Penrith are reading little into Melbourne's five losses from six NRL matches and are preparing to face the Storm of old at AAMI Park on Saturday night.

The Panthers have made defence a focus at training this week, according to hooker Kevin Kingston, with the expectation that Melbourne's all-star attack will be firing.

He said Penrith's disappointing loss last round to Parramatta, after holding a 22-point lead, could be attributed to defensive lapses.

"We know Melbourne are a danger team because they can throw the ball around with really no consequences," he said en route to Melbourne.

"Our defence will be really important, we've got to work hard at it from last week anyway, so hopefully we can aim up.

"Last week we had no problem scoring points but we leaked too many so we think we need to tighten up."

Kingston, who recently signed a new three-year deal with the Panthers, said the Storm's win-loss record wasn't indicative of their ability.

"I think if you believed that it would lull you into a false sense of security," he said.

"They're always tough at home, they're tough anywhere so we know it's a danger game for us and they can score lots of points.

"They're a team that we're going to have to be playing our best against to beat them."

The Panthers are desperate to arrest a two-game losing streak and maintain their top two position on the NRL table, although Kingston said form was more important.

"We don't want to focus too much on where we are on the table and we never have, it's more about building our game coming into the finals, when we need to fire," he said.

The Storm anchor the bottom after being stripped of all competition points for salary cap breaches and last week, against the Warriors, suffered their third straight loss - a first since coach Craig Bellamy took over in 2003.

They have also suffered the loss this week of favourite son Ryan Hoffman, Kiwi forward Jeff Lima and five-eighth Brett Finch, who announced they would join Wigan at season end.

While the Storm are at full-strength the Panthers are still without NSW State of Origin star Luke Lewis (shoulder), who is expected back next week.

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