Melbourne Storm are looking to hard work rather than history to snap their NRL losing streak when they face Canberra on Sunday.

The defending champions have suffered four losses in their past five games – similar to last season when they endured a five-game run of failures.

Then they broke through for a win in round 22 and took that form through to their grand final triumph.

Storm utility forward Ryan Hinchcliffe said there was no chance the team would rely on history repeating itself.

“If you do do that you set yourself up for failure,” Hinchcliffe said.

“If you think things are going to come good just because that’s what happened last year, that’s just ridiculous to even fathom.”

The fourth-placed Storm have a good record in Canberra, but the current Raiders outfit, who sit seventh on the ladder, have won 12 straight at home.

They also upset the champions in Melbourne in round eight.

League bad boy Blake Ferguson scored two tries in that 24-20 victory and although he hasn’t been named for the Canberra Stadium clash the Storm are preparing for him to play.

“They seem to save their best footy for us,” Hinchcliffe said.

“They’re a hard side to play, they’ve got a lot of big guys and when they get that second phase play with their offloads, they’ve got some really good outside backs and halves with Josh McCrone and (Terry) Campese.

“If you give them more than their fair share of the ball they will hurt you at some stage.”

Hinchcliffe pin-pointed the Storm’s defence as the area that needed most improvement if they were to return to the winner’s circle.

They have uncharacteristically leaked 69 points in their last two games.

“The most disappointing thing for us is defence, conceding 30 points against the Warriors last weekend it’s not acceptable.

“We need to fix our defence up and if we do that I think a lot of our attack stuff will come.”