Penrith skipper Petero Civoniceva says his team needs to take a good look at themselves and decide if they're serious about being NRL title contenders.

The Panthers slumped to their third successive defeat, this time at the hands of a spirited Melbourne, who aren't even playing for competition points.

The Storm triumphed 18-10 in an error-ridden affair at AAMI Park as Penrith looked a shadow of the team that had played its way into the NRL top two.

They only managed 54 per cent of completions, had 20 errors to the Storm's 12, and missed 18 tackles.

"We're not going anywhere as a team if there's not that acceptance about how we're contributing to these losses," Civoniceva said.

"I think we have to be honest as a group and make some decisions about where we want to take the season.

"We've definitely got the players there and there was plenty of toughness out there but poor execution let us down ... we're guilty of some real crucial errors in early stages of sets that are bringing us undone.

"We've got some work to do this week and as I said there's got to be some acceptance amongst the group about how we're contributing to these losses and until we do that well then we can get our season back on track again but there's only so much the coaching staff can do."

The Panthers' attack lacked cohesion and the players were guilty of some poor decision-making at crucial times.

Coach Matthew Elliott has refused to panic over the team's form slump, and said they were problems that could be easily fixed.

Halfback Luke Walsh was a late withdrawal, rested due to niggling leg problems, while representative forward Luke Lewis (shoulder) was also missed.

The pair are expected to return for Friday's night's clash with North Queensland at CUA Stadium.

"We've got to get players back into our team," Elliott said."

"Those two guys obviously will help us but we've see got to address the stuff that Pet said."

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