It’s not the kind of thing one says lightly, nor without looking over one’s shoulder lest a burly old-timer with a XXXX singlet and a short fuse is in the vicinity. But could Johnathan Thurston be the greatest Origin player of all time? Yes, better even than the King, Wally Lewis, a man whose statue stands watch outside the former Lang Park in much the same way as Christ the Redeemer overlooks Rio de Janeiro?
Of course, in the entertaining (but admittedly pointless) quest to elevate one above the other, there are strong cases to be made for both of them; and Andrew Johns, Mal Meninga, Darren Lockyer, Brad Fittler and Cameron Smith too, while we’re at it.
No-one, for instance, has made such a mark on Origin as Lewis. One of its founding fathers, Lewis had a profound influence on the Maroons, and with him at five-eighth, and captain, Queensland won seven of the first 10 Origin series. Perhaps just as tellingly, after his retirement the Maroons secured just five of the next 14. And it wasn’t just results he influenced. Lewis played a major role in creating the sporting and cultural juggernaut that is Origin today. And he did it not just with his skills and firing synapses but the sheer force of his presence.
Thurston doesn’t have the bare-knuckled belligerence of Lewis the player: he seems too boyish for that, what with his kookaburra laugh and his playful sense of humour. Nor does Thurston, despite the damage he’s done to NSW, inspire hate from across the border as Lewis once did (pantomime hate though it may have been for most). No, even the most one-eyed of Blues supporters would struggle to dislike Thurston.
But while Thurston doesn’t have the aura of Lewis he shares his unquenchable thirst to win, and with Thurston this is in evidence no matter the occasion or location, be it an Origin decider at Suncorp Stadium, a Test match at Old Trafford, or a friendly table tennis game within the confines of the North Queensland Cowboys’ clubhouse. Some athletes are afraid to win, afraid of the effort it will take and the cost it may bear. Thurston seems afraid to lose.
Thurston also has arrows in his quiver that Lewis didn’t, like a prodigious step and near faultless goal-kicking. And unlike Lewis, who bustled on the field and relied more on strength than speed, the slighter- framed Thurston has an impish air, the cheek to try the unexpected. Doze off for a moment and Thurston will have managed the rugby league equivalent of tying an opponent’s shoelaces together and sticking a ‘kick me’ sign on his back
More significantly, however, no-one has Thurston’s numbers. From the time the then 22-year-old former Souths Sunnybank junior debuted for the Maroons in the 2005 series, to the time of writing, Thurston has amassed figures as good as any Origin player in history: 19 wins (equal with Lewis and Lockyer), a 63% winning record (better than anyone), most points in Origin (174 and counting, ahead of Meninga’s 161) and most consecutive Origin matches (30, surpassing Gary Larson’s 24).Thurston was the only player to have played in all 24 games during the eight years of Queensland’s reign.
Hard to believe, then, that early in Queensland’s streak there existed a school of thought that Thurston — already a star at NRL level — hadn’t quite imposed himself on Origin football in his first four games (2005 and Game I, 2006), and that perhaps Scott Prince might be a better option to partner Lockyer in the halves. But Thurston soon put paid to such nonsense and over the course of the streak he showed that when the biggest games came down to the wire he was at his best. The mark of a champion if there ever was one. As his Cowboys team-mate Paul Bowman once said of him, “He just has that ability to keep pushing himself beyond what most other guys do. You see him in the 80th minute keep turning up, keep turning up.”
In the decisive Game III of the 2006 series it was Thurston whose chip kick set up Queensland’s opening try, and it was Thurston whose break late in the match from deep in his own half led directly to the Brent Tate four-pointer that got Queensland believing, knowing, they could pull the game out of the fire and put an end to their three-year losing streak. And after being man of the match in Game I, 2007, it was Thurston’s grubber kick in Game II of that year that found Steve Bell for the match-winning, series-sealing, try.
In 2008 Thurston faced one of his biggest challenges, leading Queensland’s attack in the absence of an injured Lockyer. Prior to the series he spoke about not putting any added pressure on himself “by saying I’m going to step up and be the man with Locky away”. But that’s precisely what he did. It his ‘show and go’ with the scores level in the deciding game that saw Billy Slater score the winning try beside the uprights.
One could go on like this at length, highlighting the moments, the games, when Thurston came into his own. But perhaps the most telling of these was following Locker’s retirement at the end of the 2011 series, when Thurston took Lockyer’s jumper and all the additional expectation and pressure that came with it. Queensland could have used the retirement of one of their greats as an excuse to lose, considering how much effort it takes to win. After six-straight series who would begrudge them a loss in the wake of their talismanic captain leaving the game?
But Thurston, among others, would have none of it. In the deciding game of the 2012 series—before which he used a sports psychologist to help him deal with the pressure—it was another man-of-the-match performance from Thurston that helped get Queensland over the line 21-20. “There’s a fair bit of relief tonight,” he said after that win, sealed after a memorable field-goal by Cooper Cronk. “We were under a fair bit of pressure. We just had great self belief and we’re like a big family. I’m just so proud and pleased to be a part of it.”
Just as proud and pleased were the Maroons faithful who now had a new king to coronate. The King is dead (or, rather, working for Channel Nine), long live the King!
This is an extract from The Streak: Queensland’s Eight-Year Domination of Origin. Written by Paul Connolly, The Streak (Hardie Grant Books), will be available from all good bookstores from August 1.
Follow Origin Game III with Guardian Australia’s liveblog, manned by Paul Connolly, from 7:15pm AEST with the game scheduled to kick off at 8pm AEST.
