Ethan Lowe is adamant Melbourne's tackling technique doesn't endanger opposition players despite suffering a serious spinal injury in last year's finals series against the Storm, backing away from his coach Paul Green's previous complaints.
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Stopping short of lighting the fuse for an explosive grand final between the NRL's first and eighth-placed sides at the end of the regular season, the Cowboys back-rower leapt to the Storm's defence with Craig Bellamy's men the best at legally dominating the ruck.
Lowe missed the Cowboys' last two finals games in 2016 - the only matches he has missed in a near-unbroken three-year run of NRL appearances - with what was considered a potentially career threatening neck injury after the sides' clash in the first week of the play-offs.
The 26-year-old also suffered damage to his spinal cord after a seemingly innocuous tackle involving Cheyse Blair, Blake Green and Tohu Harris, but holds no grudges against Sunday's opposition at ANZ Stadium.
And he even went a step further to suggest Melbourne's often-discussed wrestle is already heavily scrutinised by referees.
Asked if he was bitter over the incident, which was cleared by the NRL's match review committee, Lowe said: "No, not at all. It's a physical sport we play. It's a contact sport, a collision sport, and sometimes stuff happens and you get yourself in awkward position by no fault of anyone. These things happen in football so you just move on.
"They're playing to the whistle and if the refs don't blow the whistle then it's play on. I leave it to the refs to adjudicate and go from there."
Lowe, who has been on the verge of State of Origin selection, has played every game of the Cowboys' season and was sporting a badly bruised black eye on Monday after a knock in the preliminary final win over the Roosters last Saturday night.
He would have been forgiven for thinking that would never have been the case at the end of last year when mystery surrounded his injury, prompting Cowboys boss Green to write to the NRL over the Storm's tactics.
Melbourne stressed there is no lingering bad blood between the sides in the lead-up to the third non-Sydney grand final in the NRL era.
On playing the rest of the game against the Storm last year with little feeling in his hands and feet, Lowe said: "You just do whatever you can for the team.
"When it happened we didn't know how bad it was at the time. We couldn't really tell how bad it was until we had the scans so it was just [a case of] 'play on' and doing what you can for the side.
"It wasn't scary, but it was a different feeling and I didn't know what to expect. I didn't really know what it was and I wasn't too sure how to take it.
"As soon as it happened I pretty much got pins and needles through my whole body. That slowly went away and then I had numbness in my hands and fingers after that."
North Queensland five-eighth Te Maire Martin might be playing in his first grand final and has only had limited exposure to the Storm, but was all too aware of how ruthlessly efficient the minor premiers can be.
"They're good everywhere," Martin said. "They slow the tackles down really well. If you have a player out of position or something like that they'll recognise it.
"[The last time they met] was the game Coen Hess moved into the centres and they threw a lot of traffic down that edge. If they throw that many questions at you someone's going to break sooner or later so we're going to have to be on our game."
