JT leaves home ground a winner

IT WAS all about the memories of the club’s greatest player, but little did the full house at 1300SMILES Stadium know the Cowboys were about to create one of their best as they farewelled Johnathan Thurston.

A sellout crowd had lined up for hours before kick-off to pack the stands and give their champion a rousing ovation as he took the home field one last time.

And the ultimate NRL magician still had one final piece of mastery to deliver the Cowboys faithful.

North Queensland’s season of devastation would give way for the night as Thurston engineered a celebration for the ages with a 44-6 thumping of Parramatta Eels.

It was an emotion-charged night as Matt Scott brought up 250 first-grade games and Jake Granville raised the bar to celebrate his century of appearances.

The Cowboys were never in doubt from the opening whistle, rampaging to a 32-0 lead at the halftime break before landing the knockout blow in the second half to give Thurston his 100th win at home.

Cowboys behemoths Scott and Jordan Mclean not only laid the platform, they beat in the foundations with their bare hands, demolishing the Eels’ middle third of the field.

It would be polished off by the acrobatics of the Cowboys outside men as Kyle Feldt stole the show with a hat-trick, and Ben Hampton (2) and Gideon Gela-mosby also landed on the scoresheet.

It was also a coming-of-age moment for rookie half Jake Clifford, who set up three tries and a linebreak while standing alongside the master.

The young half said it was a memory that would stick with him for the rest of his playing career.

“I did get the emotion of it. I didn’t even think I was going to debut alongside him last year, getting to do that was awesome,” he said.

“But then getting to be there for his last home game is something I will always remember.

“To be part of it was pretty special in itself, but to then have a few touches that led to a try was pretty amazing as well. I think it will stay up there in my greatest moments for the rest of my career.”

In a match that had been dubbed the battle for the wooden spoon, Parramatta were reduced to punching bags as the Cowboys produced their best performance of the year.

It was like watching a Hollywood script, and the Cowboys were following it to a letter.

In similar fashion to how he had played his career, Feldt was unstoppable on the right edge, contorting his body into unimaginable positions to seal the second hat-trick of his career.

“That game was probably one of the better games I have played here at 1300SMILES Stadium,” Feldt said.

“Getting to score the hat-trick and get the win for him as well was something pretty special. It is something that will go down in history for him and for myself.”

While it wasn’t the finals finish they had all hoped for, the winger said it was the next best thing they could do for their fearless leader.

“It wasn’t just the 17 that ran out that felt the emotion, it was the whole Cowboys community at HQ and across North Queensland,” he said.

“Everyone who follows the Cowboys and had followed JT wanted to see him go out a winner. We couldn’t do it that year, but the best thing we could do was send him out a winner at home.

“That is what everyone really took out of it. It was a sad moment, but I didn’t shed a tear, I can’t give him that. But you knew it was definitely the end of an era.”

And as the celebrations continued long after the siren, one man was at the centre to lap it all up. The man they know as JT.