Melbourne Storm sit on top of the NRL ladder and are premiership favourites - and Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart says they can also be the perfect springboard to launch the Green Machine's season.

But he says it's up to his players to choose to do it in the crucial clash at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.

Stuart's also laid down the challenge for them to step up in the absence of the suspended Josh Papalii, who's been one of the Raiders' best players all season.

The Raiders sit two wins behind eighth-placed St George Illawarra, who they beat last week, and face a tough run home and need to win at least six of their final seven games.

They face an in-form Storm side that's welcoming back six State of Origin stars riding a high from Queensland's series win.

Stuart said it would not only show the Raiders where they're at, but it was a game they could use to lure out the "very good football team" that's hiding within.

He said part of that was tempering their attack and taking less risks to ensure they didn't make too many errors - something especially costly against a team like the Storm.

"We can use this as a great springboard into the back end of the season. It's our choice, it's our decisions in regards to how each and every individual plays and as a team we do need to play well," he said.

"The thing about it is we've got the confidence that we can play well. We know that we're a very good football team, we just haven't been executing it.

"We haven't given ourselves the opportunity to get back to that football team I know we've got there. I know it's hidden at the moment and I'm looking forward to the day it bounces out."

Papalii's clearly a massive loss - he's the Raiders' second-best forward for metres with 146.2 per game and also leads them for offloads (27).

Stuart's challenged his players to cover for his absent second-rower.

He was also happy with how his halves performed last week, after they swapped edges.

Stuart said the switch wasn't too difficult given both halfback Aidan Sezer and five-eighth Blake Austin tended to roam around the field anyway.

But he said both them and their teammates would need to go to another level again to beat the Storm.

"It's a massive loss losing Papa, very unfortunate, but somebody's got to now step up and take over that contribution that Papa delivers each week," Stuart said.

"He's been one of our better players this year, Josh. It'll be interesting to see who the guy is that actually steps up.

"The halves and everybody else, we've got to take it to another level again now playing against Melbourne."

Raiders captain Jarrod Croker said while they wouldn't use last year's preliminary final loss to the Storm as motivation, it did show if they could match it with them.

But he said it would take their best to do it.

"We can be [as good as Melbourne], we just haven't been at our best unfortunately. We're still in there and we're still hanging in, we're in the hunt still," Croker said.

"We spoke about it during the week, we're going to have to be at our best to beat Melbourne. They're as clinical as it gets in a footy side and we're going to have to be at our best tomorrow night."

NRL ROUND 20

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Canberra Stadium, 5.30pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.

Raiders squad: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Joe Tapine, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Sia Soliola. Interchange: 14. Kurt Baptiste, 15. Luke Bateman, 16. Dave Taylor, 17. Michael Oldfield. Reserves: 18. Royce Hunt, 19. Erin Clark, 20. Liam Knight, 21. Scott Sorensen.

Storm squad: 1. Billy Slater, 2. Suliasi Vunivalu, 3. Will Chambers, 4. Young Tonumaipea, 5. Josh Addo-Carr, 6. Cameron Munster, 7. Cooper Cronk, 8. Jesse Bromwich, 9. Cameron Smith (c), 10. Tim Glasby, 11. Felise Kaufusi, 12. Tohu Harris, 13. Dale Finucane. Interchange: 14. Kenny Bromwich, 15. Nelson Asofa-Solomona, 16. Nate Myles, 17. Joe Stimson. Reserves: 18. Mark Nicholls, 19. Curtis Scott, 20. Slade Griffin, 21. Robbie Rochow.