Having rested several key players, the Storm entered Thursday night's clash against the Cowboys as underdogs.
Despite missing star power including Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Melbourne's young and relatively inexperienced side battled hard, falling 38-30 in Townsville.
With the minor premiership wrapped up, it was a good chance for the Storm to blood some fresh talent, which included a trio of rookies, who all made their NRL debut.
Keagan Russell-Smith, Ativalu Lisati and Tristan Powell were named on the pine and ended up playing more minutes than expected after early injuries to Ryan Papenhuyzen and Marion Seve.
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Lisati in particular had a debut to remember, scoring an impressive try late on.
"I thought the three of them were really good," Storm coach Craig Bellamy said post-match.
"[Powell] was good and [Lisati] really topped it off at the end there [with a try]."
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Bellamy was also full of praise for young playmaker Russell-Smith, who featured for 66 minutes.
The 21-year-old has worked his way up the ranks at Melbourne and is considered a highly talented prospect.
"He's only a kid," Bellamy said.
"To go and play in the halves ... and we switched him over with [Wishart] and he played a bit at dummy-half.
"He did a great job as well.
"I was really happy with how [the three debutants] handled their first game in the NRL."
Powell and Lisati finished the game with 114 and 116 run metres respectively, with the latter recording a 100 per cent tackle efficiency rate.
Russell-Smith had three tackle breaks and also took some load off halves partner Cameron Munster, making four kicks.
