North Queensland coach Neil Henry still sees a flicker of hope in their NRL season, although Melbourne did their best to extinguish it with a crushing 58-12 win at AAMI Park on Saturday.

The Cowboys' season now stands at 10 losses and a miserly four wins but they can be thankful to the Storm for one thing - they can't win the wooden spoon.

Melbourne have already secured that position after they were stripped of all points for the season because of salary cap cheating.

"We're essentially playing for our chance to play in the finals," Henry said.

"When you do the sums on that we've got to win quite a few games, it's do-able but chances are running out."

It was the Storm's biggest total since 2007 when they co-incidentally beat the Cowboys by the same scoreline.

Despite having nothing to play for except pride, the Storm rammed that home against North Queensland, setting up the win with a 24-6 halftime lead.

Winger Justin O'Neill played a starring role, scoring a hat-trick in only his second NRL match.

The 19-year-old, who went to school in Townsville but somehow slipped under the Cowboys' recruitment radar, crossed twice within four minutes in the first half and then added his third in the 64th minute.

Five-eighth Brett Finch, celebrating his 250th NRL match, had a hand in all three.

"It was fantastic to get the Origin boys back ... and to put on that performance is a highlight for me, something to look back on, " Finch said.

The Storm's opening try, in the 18th minute, was scored by their other teenage winger with former junior high-jump champion Matt Duffie showing off his aerial skills to get the ball down before he was tackled into touch by John Williams.

He added another in the second half while Billy Slater, backing up from Origin, also finished with two.

Fellow Queensland representative Greg Inglis' try in the 27th minute was also a special, the giant centre intercepting a pass from North Queensland dummy half Aaron Payne and running the length of the field.

In doubt before the match with a corked thigh, Inglis didn't play in the second half after aggravating the injury late in the first stanza.

In the final minute of the half James Tamou broke through some tiring defence to score under the posts for the visitors.

Early tries by Jeff Lima and Billy Slater ensured the second half continued in the same manner for the Storm, although Cowboys five-eighth Shannon Gallant, who was out-jumped by Slater for his try, saved face with his own three minutes later.

But there was little else to cheer about as the Storm romped home with their try tally out to 10 by full-time.

Coach Craig Bellamy described his side's performance as "outstanding".

"Certainly the wingers did a great job and scored a few tries but they stopped a couple as well which is one part of our game we really wanted to improve tonight, our defence," he said

In further bad news for the Cowboys, forward Anthony Watts suffered a dislocated shoulder and could be out for a few weeks.

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