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When I was watching Johnathan Thurston on Monday night against the Melbourne Storm, I couldn’t help but think I was watching the greatest half of the modern era.
Yes, that does mean I rate him above Darren Lockyer and I think he has gone past Andrew Johns.
I know what you are all thinking, how can he be better than them if he has never even won a premiership, but when measuring the greatness of an individual player why does a team achievement come into it? The fact that he has carried his side for years surely gives similar merit to a grand final win?
Thurston has played in a number of average sides whereas Lockyer and Johns played in some seriously good sides and I know that the Cowboys in recent years have managed to develop into a quality side but they have always been missing something.
Since Thurston came along they have never had an ‘A grade’ spine. The closest they have come to that would have been when they had Aaron Payne at hooker and Matt Bowen at fullback. With all due respect to Payne, who was a solid hooker and club legend, he was never going to set the competition alight and break games open.
During this period they lacked quality forwards, now it seems to be the other way around. The forward pack that is underperforming is where the quality lies and the backline has been left to suffer.
Take the Storm for example, if you swapped Cooper Cronk for Johnathan Thurston for the last decade and he had three premierships (yes I know they were taken off them) I don’t think we would be having this discussion today. Or what about if Thurston was in the Rabbitohs side last year instead of Adam Reynolds, how good would they have been?
The reason I consider him to be the best half I’ve seen and right up there with the best players I’ve seen is because he has an almost perfect all-round game. Like Joey I think he is one of the best defensive halves ever and the two of them are streets ahead of Lockyer in that regard.
He is a great scrambler, he is always there when an opposition team, or his team for that matter, make a break, he always rushes back to play acting-half early in attacking sets and is regularly seen chasing a certain runaway try to ensure the conversion attempt is not from under the posts. I don’t think we need to discuss his attacking capabilities as they are blatantly obvious and have been put on show for years now at Club, State and National level.
Thurston and Johns have three Dally M Medals a piece and Lockyer has zero. It may seem like I am slamming Lockyer but I am not, he was a seriously great player for a long period of time in two positions but as a half I don’t think he is in the same category as Johns and Thurston.
Obviously this is just my opinion; I would be interested to hear yours in the comments below.
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