Cowboys coach Paul Green wanted Melbourne Storm's long range try which sparked a grand final rout disallowed, questioning whether Te Maire Martin was afforded a fair chance of stopping Josh Addo-Carr after a bizarre collision with a referee.

North Queensland's mid-season signing crashed into an unsuspecting Matt Cecchin as he tried to chase down Josh Addo-Carr, who bagged the first of a grand final double, in the Storm's 34-6 drubbing at ANZ Stadium on Sunday night.

NRL Bunker officials had no issue with the contact as Martin was about to attempt to tackle Addo-Carr, who had collected a ball deep inside his own territory from Will Chambers before racing downfield.

"I thought the ref knocked him over and I reckon [Martin] would have made the tackle on Addo-Carr," Green said.

"It takes a bit of wind out of your sails. It's against the run of play and in a big game against a team like that - I've said all year they're the best team - and you can't have things like that go against you."

Green was at pains to stress minor premiers Melbourne were the better team on the night, blasting to an 18-point half-time lead before coasting to their first premiership since 2012.

The Cowboys played with just 16 men for all bar the first four minutes after Shaun Fensom broke his leg in two places when falling awkwardly under a collision from teammate Ethan Lowe.

And it was always going to be a mountain too high for the NRL's cinderella side, which had flown backwards and forwards between Townsville for four straight weeks after toppling the Sharks, Eels and Roosters in the finals.

By contrast the Storm hadn't left Melbourne for seven weeks and rode an Addo-Carr double to one of the most one-sided grand finals in the NRL era, despite Martin's try hauling the Cowboys to within 12 points early in the second half.

"I'm really torn," Green said. "I'm immensely proud of the boys - I couldn't be prouder of the year we've had and what we've faced and what we've dealt with - the time will come for us to dissect tonight's game.

"We've taken huge leaps forward. From that point of view there's heaps of positives to take, but to get to the grand final and play at least half the game the way we did was disappointing."

The Cowboys will welcome back long term injured co-captains Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott next year while also welcoming Melbourne premiership winner Jordan McLean to Townsville.

Thurston addressed the grand finalists in a huddle just minutes after half-time having watched helplessly as his Queensland mates and Storm string pullers Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater tortured the underdogs.

Asked about the returns of Thurston and Scott as well as McLean's signing, Green joked: "I think it will strengthen us. You can't presume anything is going to happen next year. If we think it's just going to happen for us next year we won't get another opportunity like we did tonight.

"It's a pretty shattering feeling at the moment. Full credit to Melbourne - they've had an outstanding year - and they were at their clinical best tonight."

Added skipper Gavin Cooper: "[It feels] shithouse. I know what it feels like to win it, I know what it feels like to lose one. I'd much rather pick up the trophy. There's been a lot of talk externally how proud we should be to be here, but we still believed we should be here. Unfortunately for parts of the game we were sub-par. We didn't play the way we've played the last month."