Te Maire Martin had never played fullback at any level of rugby league before Saturday night's clash with the Dragons at 1300SMILES Stadium – not that anyone would have known.

The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys playmaker produced an exciting performance during his first foray in the custodian role and was subsequently named Tropic Petroleum Man of the Match by head coach Paul Green during post-match presentations at the Cowboys Leagues Club on Saturday night.

"We had some good performances despite the result," Green said.

"I thought JT tried his heart out and kept us in the game and Johnny Asiata made a real difference through the middle. But we gave the award to Te Maire Martin, he was playing in a position that he'd never played before and he did a fantastic job."

Martin said post-game he would be open to a permanent move to the No.1 jersey, but also admitted he had a lot of work ahead of him to be a full-time NRL fullback.

The 22-year-old was solid positionally during the Dragons clash and proved himself capable under the high ball.

"It's a tough position," Martin said.

"There's a lot more running off the ball, but I got a lot of help from Feldty [Kyle Feldt] and Juze [Justin O'Neill], they came in and took a lot of the hard high balls for me.

"I've still got a lot to learn and I've really got to thank Cootey and Greeny for helping me out during the week with my positional play."