No fairytale finish but plenty of moments
Not everyone gets the fairytale. Just ask Johnathan Thurston. With all due respect to NRL club Gold Coast, the Titans’ home ground would not have been Thurston’s first choice to play his last game.
Thurston’s dream script would no doubt have featured popping champagne at ANZ Stadium on September 30 – probably after yet another of his trademark match-winning field goals.
Instead, North Queensland will farewell the 35-year-old playmaker at Cbus Super Stadium this afternoon after not only missing the finals but narrowly avoiding the wooden spoon.
The prospect would have warranted a trademark Thurston laugh if suggested in the pre-season to early title favourites the Cowboys.
But great players are rated by their ‘‘moments’’.
And Queensland coach Kevin Walters believes Thurston has already had his fair share – including a perfect goodbye.
Ranking Thurston’s many highlights from his glittering 17-season career will no doubt spark endless water cooler debates long after he is chaired off Cbus Super Stadium by team-mates.
However, Walters was adamant nothing could beat Thurston’s matchwinning display in State of Origin game two last year in what would be his final game for the Maroons.
History showed Thurston was nursing a season-ending shoulder injury when he kicked a difficult conversion to seal an 18-16 win in Sydney.
Walters said it was a fitting Origin farewell for Thurston, rating it more inspiring than 1995 captain Trevor Gillmeister leaving his hospital bed to lead a no-name Queensland to a shock whitewash.
‘‘It was more special [than Gillmeister] given Queensland were down 1-0 in the series and . . . he played 60 minutes with one arm basically,’’ Walters said.
‘‘When he kicked the goal from the sideline, that will always stay with me because of his sacrifice, what he put himself through.
‘‘He’s only a lightweight for his body frame but I don’t think I have seen a player more mentally tough.
‘‘He left the Origin arena a winner and that will never be forgotten in my view.’’
Plenty think of a wonky field goal that delivered North Queensland’s maiden 2015 NRL title as Thurston’s highlight.
However, Cameron Smith reckoned Thurston’s defining moment came at his first NRL stop Canterbury.
And Smith would know.
He first crossed paths with Thurston as 10-year-old rivals at Logan junior footy in Brisbane’s west.
‘‘I can remember our first game. He went for a cut out pass and one of my teammates intercepted it . . . and scored,’’ Smith said.
‘‘I turned around and JT was still where he had passed the ball but on the ground crying.
‘‘That was how seriously he took his football. That [quality] is what I think has made him such a great footballer for such a long time.’’
Thurston’s Cowboys feats will dominate his highlights reel but Smith said it was at the Bulldogs where the ‘‘skinny kid from Toowoomba’’ forged his legend.
And it wasn’t Thurston’s decision to hand his 2014 Bulldogs premiership ring to injured skipper Steve Price.
‘‘There are plenty of moments where he showed his greatness,’’ Smith said.
‘‘But making his first grade debut at Canterbury [in 2002], I think that proved a lot of doubters wrong.
‘‘Through his junior days he was told he was too small but he went down there, won a premiership with the Bulldogs and once he was given his own team at the Cowboys in 2005 he had a lot of success.’’
And moments.
Not all of them witnessed by NRL crowds.
‘‘When you sit back and think about the times we shared, the most I enjoyed were the times in the dressing sheds after the game,’’ Smith said of ex-test and Maroons team-mate Thurston.
‘‘JT and I are a bit old school. We are happy to sit in our playing kit in the lockers for several hours.
‘‘I think they are the moments we will treasure for the rest of our lives.’’
Gold Coast may be a long way from ANZ Stadium but Walters said it would not matter where Thurston ended his career. ‘‘It is not about your last game,’’ he said. ‘‘Look at JT’s longevity. He has success wherever he has been.
‘‘But not everyone gets the fairytale finish.’’
Not even Thurston.