Storm coach Craig Bellamy says the club is hoping a change in attitude away from the comforts of home will help it perform better on the road in 2010.
In 2007 Melbourne won 10 of its 13 road games en route to the premiership, the three defeats the only ones the club suffered all season, but in the two seasons since Bellamy's men have won only 12 of the 27 games they have played outside Victoria.
The Storm may have gone on to take out last year's title as they hit peak form at the perfect time late in the season but with their first three games of this year - and five of the first eight - to be played away Bellamy said an improvement is a must.
"Certainly it's not easy but the boys have got the mentality that (if) they enjoy the travel and enjoy each other's company then when we get to where we get to we make sure we train well and then hopefully that sort of stuff will lead to us playing well," Bellamy said.
"(So we're) trying to have a bit of fun and making sure we're enjoying each other's company during the travel but making sure that when we get there and train or have our meetings that we're switched on for that."
"It's a bit of a new mentality for us and we need to have a good attitude away this year because of how many games we've got away early in the year and you certainly don't want to drop too many games early in the year or you're chasing your tail for the rest of it."
The coaches and players decided on the new approach when they got on a plane in the lead-up to their recent successful trip to England for the World Club Challenge against Leeds Rhinos, which they won 18-10.
"We knew it was going to be a long trip over there, we knew the weather was going to be a whole heap different to what it was here so it was just a matter of being aware of that and not letting the conditions or the situations alter our attitude or our mentality to the things we wanted to do on and off the field," he added.
"I think that worked really well for us over there so we've decided we'll try the same sort of mentality with the first few games that we've got away."
One of Melbourne's most disappointing losses away from home in 2009 came in Round 23 when it went down at EnergyAustralia Stadium to a Knights team playing on the back of the emotion of Rick Stone being installed as coach following Brian Smith's early departure.
And having also gone down on the road to Newcastle the season before amid the hype of Danny Buderus' last game for the club - even though the hooker didn't play in the end because of injury - Bellamy is wary of the threat Stone's men provide following their upset of the Bulldogs in Round 1.
"We've played pretty poorly up there ... and we're very hopeful we can turn that around this week," Bellamy said.
"Certainly it's going to be a tough game, they played great last week."
"A lot of people seem surprised by that but when you have a look at the side they've got it's a good footy team on paper and they showed that last week against the Bulldogs."
"Obviously the Bulldogs were one of the form sides last year so it was a great effort from them last week."