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With a face of blood, sweat, and tears, it was surprising Johnathan Thurston’s blood wasn’t blue, the visible sign of rugby league royalty.
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Just put the the first 79 minutes of the blockbusting NRL grand final at ANZ Stadium last night aside, where the Broncos held a tenuous 16-12 lead over the Cowboys, and it’s seconds away from the final hooter.
With 82,758 spectators on the edge of their seats, and multi-millions more watching on television, Johnathan Dean Thurston, the then knackered 32-year-old co-captain of the Cowboys, and four-time Dally M Medallist, summoned his battered body for a last hurrah.
He sent his classy five-eighth Michael Morgan on his weaving way towards the chalk before Morgan deftly transferred to an unmarked Kyle Feldt to touch down in the corner.
The scoreboard read 16-16, the final hooter had sounded, as Thurston was desperately trying to steady himself for the conversion highlight of his illustrious career.
A first-time premiership was there for the taking, just pilot that football through the posts from touch.
Four minutes later, which seemed an eternity, Thurston’s trusty right boot sent the football on its potentially historic way.
As it curled in true Thurston fashion from outside the posts, the football’s flight straightened to slam into the right hand upright.
The look of horror on Thurston’s face will live long in the memory – it was golden point time, was the premiership chance gone?
No, the rugby league gods were to have the final say.
From the golden point kick-off, Bronco half Ben Hunt knocked on, virtually in front of the posts.
The Thurston drop goal was as inevitable as Jonny Wilkinson’s to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup final for England over the Wallabies, also in extra time.
The seemingly never-ending Thurston factor had again surfaced, and with he had captured the coveted Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground.
The scoreboard now read 17-16, the Cowboys had their first NRL premiership, and he had lived up to my Roar preview prediction on October 3 – “And in the process Johnathan Thurston will conclusively prove he’s the greatest half-back rugby league has ever seen”.
But hold the phone, there were two other footballing feats that demand recognition over what has been a simply magnificent weekend in three codes.
It started with Hawthorn playmaker Cyril Rioli winning the AFL’s coveted Norm Smith Medal for best on ground in the 46-point grand final success over the West Coast at the MCG on Saturday afternoon for a third successive flag.
But for Rioli it meant so much more to keep up a magnificent family tradition of Norm Smith Medals.
He’s following in the footsteps of two uncles Maurice Rioli, and Michael Long. Rioli won his Norm Smith for Richmond in 1982, Long for Essendon in 1993.
On Sunday morning at the home of rugby, the Wallabies gave England a 33-13 lesson to bounce the hosts out of the World Cup.
Captain Stephen Moore’s troops achieved what Michael Clarke’s cricketers couldn’t with the Ashes – a sweet victory, soured only by the twits on Twitter naming an embarrassed England lock Joe Launchbury man of the match.
Who?
In a rating out of 10, Bernard Foley and David Pocock would have been 9.5, Launchbury somewhere on the 0.5 rung.
Obviously the English fans wanted to salvage something out of the Twickenham carnage, if only to make international fools of themselves.
But class wins out every time.
And that’s Cyril Rioli, Bernard Foley, David Pocock, and Johnathan Thurston in chronological order.
What a magnificent and memorable weekend.