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Tomorrow night’s clash between the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and North Queensland Cowboys in Belmore will be significant in more ways than just one, with Johnathan Thurston to make an emotional return to the ground where his professional rugby league career started.
Thurston is the most decorated player in the National Rugby League, winning just about every award on offer including four Dally M Medals, three Golden Boot awards, and, most importantly, the Clive Churchill Medal for his role in leading his beloved Cowboys to their maiden premiership last year.
Additionally he has not missed a State of Origin match for Queensland since debuting in Game I, 2005, notching up 36 consecutive appearances for the Maroons, during which they strung together a record eight consecutive series wins.
He also featured in the Australian sides that won the Four Nations title in 2009 and the Rugby League World Cup in 2013, as well as the Cowboys side that won its first World Club Challenge title earlier this year.
Many rugby league fans will think that Thurston finally achieved his dream of winning a premiership when the Cowboys beat the Brisbane Broncos in golden point extra time in one of the greatest grand finals of all time.
Well, actually, he had tasted premiership glory before.
Despite being a stand-out player in his junior years, it was feared that his small stature would not stand up to the demands of the National Rugby League.
Only the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs were willing to sign him, but ultimately the Bulldogs snapped him up as Belmore Oval was closer to where he was living at the time.
Thurston, aged 19, made his NRL debut for the Bulldogs midway through the 2002 season in which the club was revealed to have breached the salary cap, the penalties seeing them crash from the top of the ladder to the bottom of it in one hit.
He would manage just 29 games in his three years at the Bulldogs, being stuck behind the club’s preferred halves pairing in Braith Anasta and Brent Sherwin. Still, he managed 15 games in 2003 and seven in each of 2002 and 2004.
However, of all the games he played in the blue and white, none was more important than the 2004 grand final, for which he was named 18th man and replaced Steve Price who was ruled out of the decider with a knee injury.
Coming off the bench, Thurston played his part as the Bulldogs defeated the Sydney Roosters 16-13 to win their eighth (and to date, most recent) premiership.
In a nice and wonderful gesture, Thurston would give his premiership ring to Price – who would move to the New Zealand Warriors the following season – as a thank you for his housing and mentoring of the then 21-year-old.
Thurston would move to the Cowboys the following year and as they say, the rest is history.
Following good form in the first half of the season, Thurston would gain selection for Queensland and in his Origin debut, would kick a field goal to force extra time, during which the Maroons won via an intercept try to Matthew Bowen.
He would lead his Cowboys side to the grand final, and have the chance to win consecutive premierships with two different clubs.
But those hopes were dashed when the Wests Tigers, on the back of a masterclass by Benji Marshall and Scott Prince, whom Thurston had usurped as the Maroons’ halfback in the Origin series, won 30-16.
Thurston would then be appointed captain in 2007 but would have to wait until last year to lead his side into another grand final, the club having either underperformed or fallen short in the intervention.
In the meantime, Thurston would feature in the all-conquering Maroons side that won eight consecutive series between 2006 and 2013 and would just about win every award possible in rugby league.
His crowning moment would finally come when he led his Cowboys side to its maiden premiership, first being involved in the play that saw Kyle Feldt score the try to level the scores at 16-all, then, after missing the conversion from the sideline, kicking the match-winning goal in golden point extra time.
For these efforts alone, he would be named the Clive Churchill Medallist.
Now, his rugby league career will just about come full circle when he takes the Cowboys to the ground where it all started, the Belmore Sports Ground.
With the Bulldogs and Cowboys sitting in fourth and fifth place on the ladder respectively, not only does it shape as a potential finals preview, but it could also decide which of the two clubs gets the coveted double chance in September.
The two clubs met just last month with the Cowboys claiming a landslide 36-0 victory in Townsville, but since then the Bulldogs had won three straight before losing to the Brisbane Broncos 20-10 last Friday night.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys would drop three straight, including two consecutive matches in Sydney against the Wests Tigers and Roosters, before righting the ship with a 34-6 win over the Warriors at home last Saturday night.
Now the time has come for Thurston to return to Belmore and the man himself says he is excited for what is to come.
“They’re (the Bulldogs) back to their spiritual home ground there at Belmore,” he said.
“Personally, (I am) looking forward to it, but it’s going to be great challenge for us to see where we’re at both physically and mentally. Destiny’s in our own hands now. It’s right there for us and they’ll be thinking the same. It’s a big game for both teams.”
Tomorrow night’s match in Belmore will mark another significant chapter in the rivalry between the two clubs, which includes Thurston playing for both clubs and also the Cowboys shocking the eventual premiers, the Bulldogs, 30-22 in their first ever finals match way back in 2004.
It now remains to be seen not only how the match unfolds, but also what kind of reception Thurston receives from what is expected to be a pro-Bulldogs crowd of up to 20,000.
And with both the Bulldogs and Cowboys set to participate in September yet again, expect nothing but intensity between the two clubs.
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