Battle-scarred Australian forward Paul Gallen dismissed suggestions New Zealand had pulled off its thrilling 16-12 Four Nations victory with one or possibly two forward passes in its last-ditch match-winning try.

Controversy reigned over halfback Nathan Fien's 80th-minute miracle try which involved speculative overhead passes from winger Jason Nightingale and five-eighth Benji Marshall as an exhausted Australia, hit by two key first-half injuries to Brent Tate and Luke Lewis, were out on their feet.

While the Cronulla enforcer described the try that stole the final as "freaky" he had no complaints about the two passes that set it up.

"You can't call that forward with a minute to go. If it was us, I wouldn't have expected the referee to call it forward," said Gallen.

"Have a look at their first try (Shaun Kenny-Dowall off Marshall), now that was forward," he laughed.

"At half time (6-all) it was one of those games that was made for us to come out and show a lot of character and win it.

"We did that, everyone busted their backsides but a freaky play in probably the last play of the game got them the win.

"We were running out of troops, everyone was busted a lot of blokes had to play a lot of minutes they don't normally play.

"It was the last play of the game, on fifth tackle, and they threw two no-look passes that came off.

"They sun was shining on them.

"The (first) ball got thrown back in (by Nightingale) straight through Locky's hands and then they throw another no-looker, it's just something that happens."

While it was clear Gallen and teammates such as Darren Lockyer and Billy Slater, who experienced the pain of 2008 were gutted by the defeat, the Sharks skipper showed he had not lost his sense of humour.

Asked if it was the lowest feeling he'd experienced in rugby league he replied: "Mate, I've played 30 games this year, come second last (premiership) and lost an Origin series, I'm probably a bit used to it at the moment which isn't a good thing."

"But we'll be back next year."

Hooker Cameron Smith, who led Australia's defence with almost 50 tackles, said New Zealand were showing they had improved a lot on the international stage.

"It was a sombre dressing room tonight after the game. It was just a heartbreaker," he said.

"To play under the circumstances we did for the majority of the game (with two players injured) and to be up by two (points) with less than two minutes left ..... to have that try scored against you on their last tackle, it's pretty hard to take.

"But that's footy and we have to be gracious in defeat and cop it on the chin."

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