They were blown away in the opening 25 minutes by a rampaging Melbourne Storm, which their coach Craig Bellamy couldn't have dreamed of as they ran out 30-10 winners at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

It sees the Green Machine's season come to an end in the preliminary final - one step away from last year's grand final appearance.

And after one question, Stuart called an end to the press conference and returned to the sheds to commiserate with his players.

He covered a few bases with his one answer - praising the Storm and wishing his good mate Bellamy all the best in next week's decider at ANZ Stadium.

That included the first 25 minutes, when the Raiders were completely overrun. They found themselves 24-0 down in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

Any lesser team and it would've been all over bar the shouting, but you just never knew whether this Raiders side could produce a similar comeback to what they did against the Storm last year - coming back from 18-0 for a stirring win.

But, alas, they were just memories.

"That first 25 minutes we had no footy and we didn't defended well," Stuart said.

"It was four tries to nil. It was really disappointing because we were passive in defence and we didn't start well.

"It was not us. I can handle the loss, I can understand the loss, but I'm just really disappointed we didn't have one of our betters games tonight.

"That was the disappointing part from a coaching point of view.

"It was a game that as a coach it disappoints you because you're better than that.

"But Melbourne did a really good job. They did a wonderful job of using the weight of possession they had.

"To our character and resilience they have in the team we hung around and tried to turn it around, but Melbourne just wouldn't let us."

It's been a tough year for everyone in the NRL, but especially the Raiders.

They faced the toughest travel toll of any team in the competition and on top of that had a lot of injuries including their star hooker and co-captain Josh Hodgson.

It made Stuart proud of how far they'd gone.

"It was a tough night, but very proud of where we got to," he continued.

"I'm disappointed in not going one step further because I think we're better than what we showed tonight.

"You can't take it for granted in getting to this position in the season because you fight so hard to get here and put so much work into getting to this stage of the season and for us to let ourselves down like in the first 25 minutes is the disappointing part.

"I can handle the loss, but I genuinely wish Craig and Cameron [Smith] and the team all the best for next week."

And with that, he was gone.

Bellamy will hope the Storm can reproduce their start against either the Penrith Panthers or South Sydney Rabbitohs, who face off at ANZ Stadium on Saturday for the other spot in the decider.

He even made a point of talking about starting well at the captain's run on Thursday.

"I couldn't have asked for a much better start. The Raiders are a really good side and a really good defensive side," Bellamy said.

"To score that many points was a real bonus for us.

"I probably couldn't dream of starting 17 our of 17 [sets] in the first half and the first 20 minutes we basically had all the ball.

"It was tough going for the Raiders, but it was great for us ... [I] would've wished for that start, but never, ever believed it would be that good."