The North Queensland Cowboys are 0-3 and face the Melbourne Storm on Monday night and are desperate to find their first win of the year.

But just how desperate are they?

The slap in the face they need has come from their legendary captain Johnathan Thurston who has branded his team “soft”.

“Last year we based our game on defence and that’s where we have struggled, to defend back-to-back sets,” Thurston said on Thursday.

“We have been soft in that area. We have to defend those sets and we can do that.

“We looked at vision from the weekend where we defended sets back to back (against the Broncos).’’