While it was Cronk's home-and-away Melbourne farewell as he prepares to move to Sydney at the end of the season and Smith joined Queensland legend Darren Lockyer as the NRL's games record holder, the Raiders also had a couple of milestones of their own they were looking to mark with a win.

Canberra spiritual leader Sia Soliola played his 150th NRL game, while five-eight Blake Austin brought up his 100th and star hooker Josh Hodgson played his 200th senior game.

Croker said it was their start - they were 20-0 down after 19 minutes - rather than any milestone effect that led to the 32-6 loss in the Raiders' final game of the season.

"We had a fair few milestone games ourselves ... so we had plenty to play for as well and Melbourne in Melbourne are always tough whether they've got milestones or not so it was always going to be tough," he said.

"But we just didn't start the way we wanted to and they got away from us there early."

Storm captain Smith will now face an even bigger milestone in Melbourne's qualifying final against Parramatta next weekend.

He'll go past Lockyer to hold the outright NRL games record when he plays his 356th NRL match as the Storm begin their campaign to turn a minor premiership into the big one.

"I didn't think a whole lot about it this week, equalling Locky's games record, mainly focused on what my job was for the team and what I need to do to make it a special night for Cooper and Nelson [Asofa-Solomona], playing his 50th game for the club," Smith said.

"And of course keeping some momentum going into next week, that was my focus.

"There's going to be a little bit of talk about the game next week, but I've got to approach it like every other game.

"It certainly is a proud moment for myself and my family, and I'm sure it is for the club and my teammates. I've just got to get to the 80 minutes first and get through and hopefully celebrate it afterwards."

Raiders second-rower Joe Tapine escaped sanction after he was put on report for trying to kick the ball out of Tohu Harris's hands when he scored his first try. Harris also escaped punishment for his elbow on Aidan Sezer.