North Queensland coach Graham Murray's eight days from hell ended with a super-charged Melbourne outfit running rampant over his side 58-12 in their NRL clash at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

After watching the last-placed Roosters embarrass the Cowboys 64-30 at Telstra Stadium last Saturday, the NSW State of Origin coach then lost the coveted inter-state series on Wednesday.

He returned to Townsville to witness a 10-tries-to-three humiliation in front of 20,000 frustrated fans.

The Cowboys (8-6) now sit precariously in the top four following the last two week's floggings, while the high-flying Storm - playing without Origin forwards Brett White and Dallas Johnson - rocketed to a 12-2 record atop the NRL ladder.

Storm coach Craig Bellamy could only marvel at the attacking efforts of his side, which included four players backing up from Wednesday's State of Origin clash, as last year's runners-up piled on seven tries for a devastating 40-4 halftime lead.

"Some of our attack was great (as we've) been struggling with that a little bit at times," Bellamy said.

"But to get it together tonight, it was a bit unbelievable, a bit surreal."

Bellamy praised his side for getting through two consecutive away wins after last week's 4-2 slugfest against the Warriors in Auckland.

"To get away with two gutsy wins was real great for us," Bellamy said.

Melbourne flyers Matt King and Greg Inglis, scoring two tries apiece, along with halfback Cooper Cronk, starred for the high-flying visitors.

Captain Cameron Smith was also outstanding and booted nine goals from 10 attempts.

The Cowboys scored two of the last three tries of the night to salvage a smidgin of pride, but it hardly mattered, the final score easily surpassing the Storm's previous biggest win over the Cowboys.

That 38-10 result came in Melbourne five years ago and against a vastly different Cowboys team that is now striving to become a genuine premiership contender, ambitions that seem a long way off following the past fortnight's results.

The rout comes after Cowboys assistant coach Ian Millward spoke of the Cowboys doing extra defensive work during the week in the wake of the Roosters debacle.

The team was without gamebreaker Johnathan Thurston (Origin commitments) on that occasion, but tonight there could be no such excuse as the champion halfback's effectiveness was nullified by Melbourne's relentless hunger for the tryline.

Asked whether the result could be put down to a white-hot Storm or a woeful Cowboys, Murray said it was a bit of both.

"They're easy the best side we've played this year," he said.

"We've just lost a bit of zip and momentum and what we like to do as Cowboys"

Despite the back-to-back floggings, Murray said a similar side would go around next week as the Cowboys head south to Canberra.

"You get another go next Saturday," he said.

"We've got faith in them (the current lineup), we know they can do the job, its just at the moment, they're not quite doing what we've been preparing.

"Defensively we were pretty poor the last two weeks, and we've got to look at our formation and what we do as a group."

Inglis and reserve Sam Tagataese crossed early in the second half and if it wasn't for some Israel Folau selfishness - the teen sensation blowing a certain try by refusing to throw the last pass - the Storm may have nudged the 71 points Brisbane racked up against Newcastle in round 11.

Storm halfback Cronk left the field early in the first half with a leg injury.

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