Where the NRL grand final will be won

Jason Taumalolo of the Cowboys passes the ball. Photo / Getty

Are Melbourne open to an early onslaught?

It's the question many are pondering heading into Sunday's NRL grand final as North Queensland dare to dream of an against-the-odds premiership.

It's hard to point out chinks in the Storm's armour after the runaway minor premiers led the league for both attack (26.2 points per game) and defence (13.5 per game) this year.

However after looking near-invincible all season, the Storm have shown they are very much human in their two finals victories over Parramatta and Brisbane.

The Eels took a surprise 10-4 lead into the break in week one of the finals while it took the Storm until the 39th minute to score their first try against the Broncos before going on with the job to win 30-0.

Premiership-winning coach Phil Gould described the minor premiers as "overrated" and ripe for the picking should the Cowboys start well.

"I think we've done what we needed to do to win, to be honest," Storm skipper Cameron Smith said.

"Parramatta came with a willing game plan against us and they threw everything they had against us. We struggled a little bit with Cameron Munster in the sin bin and we were lucky to scrap away with the win.

"Then when we played against the Broncos, our first half wasn't particularly good. Especially in attack, we made a lot of crucial errors and turned over a lot of cheap football to the Broncos.

"This week is all about putting together a strong 80-minute performance."

If there's one side who can punish an opposition if they don't put in a complete performance, it's the Cowboys.

Despite just scraping into the top eight, the Cowboys have demonstrated an ability to strangle their opposition out of the game.

During season 2017 they have completed at 80 per cent - the highest in the league - and that mark has jumped to 85.3 per cent during the finals.

However, as disciplined as Paul Green's side have been, some question whether the Johnathan Thurston-less Cowboys can post points against a side ranked that has conceded the least tries, points, run metres and line breaks this year.

With Michael Morgan at the helm, they have proved they can trouble the scoreboard. During the finals the Cowboys have run for more metres than any other team (1540m per game) as well as being second in points scored (22.7 per game), line breaks (five per game) and tackled in the opposition 20 (35.7 per game).

"I'm OK, I feel fine," Morgan said when asked about the pressure on him.

"There has been more (attention) than 2015 but that's because JT was there, he takes a lot of pressure and limelight, which is understandable.

"I'm feeling OK."

- AAP