Melbourne Storm's grand final painful but not shameful against ...

Bruce Springsteen once sang "my best was never good enough".

After their 14-6 loss to Penrith in the NRL grand final, the Storm must surely be wondering if even their best would've been good enough had the Panthers ever allowed them a sliver of a moment to find it.

Melbourne wasn't abysmal or completely outclassed. They played well enough that on another day in another universe, maybe they win this game.

But, after four years of dominance (ironically kicked off with a heartbreaking loss to the Storm in 2020) the Panthers have made a dynasty out of executing this particular game.

A distraught Ryan Papenhuyzen described it to ABC Sport as "suffocating" and it feels true in every sense of the word.

With their athleticism, skill and execution, the Panthers choke the life out of teams, robbing of them of the space to go to work and snatching away the time that even Dally M medallist's need to make decisions out on the field.

To beat them in the regular season, teams need to play well. To beat them on the first Sunday in October, a team needs every weapon in their arsenal fully loaded, sharpened, dialled in, zeroed out. And the Storm simply didn't.

That Dally M Medal winner, Jahrome Hughes, had possibly his worst game of the year when his team needed him most.

The Storm halfback came out of the preliminary final against the Roosters with a hat-trick of tries and a hat-trick of injury concerns to his neck, shoulder and back.

Player of the year Jahrome Hughes (left) could do nothing to slow down the Panthers. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

As late as Saturday's captain's run, he didn't look completely comfortable even kicking a ball for distance, much less controlling and sparking the attack while weathering a battering from someone like Scott Sorensen, the closest thing the NRL has to a marble statue.

Ultimately, robbed off the time and space he needed to unleash the running game that tore the league apart this season, booting the ball long was all he could do, kicking for 557m (his highest mark of the season) as the Storm battled to get over halfway all night.

When they did have a chance to launch an attacking kick to towering wingers Xavier Coates and Will Warbrick, the height advantage mattered little as Sunia Turuva, Brian To'o and Paul Alamoti simply waited for them to come down and monstered them in the ground game from the moment they hit the turf.

Even Jack Howarth was made to look like the rookie he is for the first time since finally securing the starting centre role midway through the year.

For the first time since he became a regular Storm starter, Jack Howarth (bottom) looked like a rookie in the grand final. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

Across the field the pink Panthers hunted in packs while the nagging question about the Storm was brutally answered in the negative on the biggest stage against the best opponent.

Without Nelson Asofa-Solomona's power in the forward pack, Craig Bellamy appeared to surrender the middle of the field to Penrith, taking starting prop Tui Kamikamica off after 18 minutes and not putting him back on, and holding back hulking rookie Lazarus Va'alepu for the last 10 desperate minutes.

Rugby league is moving away from the days of front-row rotations full of giants, and Melbourne got by all season with Josh King and Trent Loiero as their most consistent presences in the middle, even against the Roosters, who boasted the meanest bunch of blockheads in the league in their front six.

But when it came to the Panthers, whose pack has the power of yesteryear as well as the mobility, agility and skill required in the modern game, the Storm couldn't keep up.

Even Bellamy was hesitant to call the Storm's errors "unforced" in his post-match press conference, because they were brought about by Penrith's refusal to break.

Hunting for weaknesses in the defence can lead players to run themselves into corners or over the touchline.

Passes get forced, balls get fumbled and players get frustrated when those weaknesses, which every other team has, don't materialise.

The alternative is to lie down and let the tide of Penrith's greatness take you, which (while it may feel like the logical course of action) is never going to be the way for true competitors like Bellamy and Grant.

Immediately after the game, through the pain, both were looking ahead to Melbourne's future. Bellamy even managed a smile (although it did have a hint of 'If you don't laugh, you'll cry' about it).

Losing grand finals hurts. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

Captain Harry Grant and breakout back rower Eli Katoa had brilliant games in a beaten side in their first grand finals. Xavier Coates ran for 200m, 70 of them after contact, while being bombarded by Nathan Cleary and the kick-chasing pack.

The quality shone through in moments.

The skipper will only be 27 at the start of next season and still the leader of the most stacked spine in the league. Howarth, Katoa and Shawn Blore are still in the infancy stage of their careers and already look ready for prime time.

Stefano Utoikamanu arrives next year and the rest of the band is coming back too.

The last time the Storm were in the grand final, they won and sparked a dynasty; just not their own.

Now they're hoping this loss will be the start of something for them.

"Hopefully we'll be wiser for tonight, learn a few things," Bellamy said.

"There's a theory that you've got to lose one to win one; hopefully that's the case."

The theory didn't hold true for South Sydney, Parramatta or Brisbane as they fell in a heap after becoming pavers on Penrith's path to immortality, but the Storm have the personnel and the track record to make us believe.

And in the face of the inevitability of the Panthers, believing is half the battle.