AAP


The sides are at opposite ends of the NRL table, but Todd Lowrie says hosting the Warriors is a match Melbourne fear.


Lowrie spent three seasons with the Storm, winning a premiership last year, before joining the Warriors.


The back-rower returns to AAMI Park on Thursday for the traditional Anzac Day meeting between the clubs.


While unbeaten Melbourne are leading the competition, the Warriors are separated from bottom spot by points difference alone after just one win in six rounds.


They also have a hefty casualty list that includes winger Manu Vatuvei and another Storm grand final-winner in Dane Nielsen, while skipper Simon Mannering is in doubt.


Injuries aside, Lowrie said the two squads were at different stages of development, but added that the Storm were always wary when the Warriors travelled across.


"I do know that Melbourne fear this game because the Warriors have had a lot of success there over the years," he said.


"No matter where we're on the table, it's certainly a game they don't take lightly for sure."


The Warriors do have a good record in the Victorian capital, with six wins and two draws from 16 visits.


They are ahead on the count at AAMI Park, by two wins to one, with one of the victories being in the 2011 preliminary final.


But to come away with anything this time around, they know they have to cut down the mistakes that blighted their second-half performance against Canberra, when they let a 12-point lead slip to lose 20-16.


It was their third defeat by four points or fewer this season.


"We're doing enough to win games, but we're just not concentrating for 80 minutes and that's what's letting us down," Lowrie said.


"It has cost us five or six points this year and it would be a different story if we had won them."


Lowrie admits that it will be a strange experience when he gets off the bus at the ground, which the Storm moved to in 2010.


"It will be a bit weird to go back to the old workplace," he said.


"I don't think I've ever been in the visitors' shed, so that will be different."