Loss of Thurston is a hurdle: Stuart

CANBERRA recorded their third straight win over North Queensland on Saturday and the explanation, if you believe coach Ricky Stuart, is simple.

“One big reason; Johnathan Thurston,” Stuart said.

“Any football team that loses JT is going to have a hole that they cannot fill.” The hosts were horrible, particularly the halves pairing Michael Morgan and Jake Clifford, who fumbled their way through North Queensland’s 12-30 defeat to seal a 1-3 start to life without retired legend Thurston.

Morgan and 21-year-old Clifford’s combination is only two matches old but after consecutive heavy defeats coach Paul Green’s patience is being tested. The pair committed three errors each.

“Now’s not really the time to be talking about positions,” Green said. “But I will say you can’t keep throwing up performances like that and expect to keep your spot.”

It was left to Green’s counterpart Stuart to go into bat for Clifford. “Any young player coming into that position, filling the boots of Johnathan Thurston, has a lot of expectation on him. He just needs time,” he said.