Is Thurston the greatest half of the modern era?

Danny Buderus Robbie O'Davis Timana Tahu Matthew Gidley Adam MacDougall Adam Muir

I love this argument... From my experience, him admitting to loving an eccy or 10 only makes his playing career even more impressive.

Yep, he was the best or near the best at kicking, passing, directing his team around the field and finding the weak link in the opposition defence. He was a great goal kicker, and he defended like an extra back rower. Damn near unstoppable near the goal line when he put his head down. Yes the media loved him, but you can't use that against him. He deserved the hype. The only player recently that I would put near the same class as him is Lockyer. Thurston is a great player, but he shouldn't be in this discussion with those two at all.

Agreed on both counts good sir.

I regard Lockyer as the greatest i've ever seen but no way is Thurston better than Joey.

I wouldn't even say running game. Because Lockyer came from Fullback, so in his early days he had the best running game going. Some of the Origin and early Broncos highlights when he was at Fullback. He just glides. It is breathtaking. I don't think Lockyer had the long passing game of Thurston. He throws the best cut-outs I have seen. But Locky's short passing was second to none. The sleight of hand left everyone for dead. I also used to love the wrap around with Tunza back in the day. For a nugget he had soft hands.

Nah, it was just on the "skills" thing you were talking about, having things that Lockyer could only dream of. The only one for mine was the running game, but even that comes with caveats. "Screaming". Yeah it was funny, after the game Billy Slater's impersonation of Lockyer's voice. I actually remember the whitewash, same play. Blues in front by 5, Ennis, trying to niggle, gives a way a penalty in his own 20m. I think it was almost the very next phase - outside to Lockyer, back inside to Slater. Converted try. 3-0 Qld.

I am not arguing that JT is better than Lockyer. Lockyer would be first picked in every team I put together. If I could have 2000 Lockyer at Fullback and 2006 Lockyer at 6 then I would do that. Thurston has some amazing passes. Like you said Lockyer was great at reading plays. Probably his strongest attribute. It's the reason he was responsible for laying on so many great tries at the end of the matches. Billy Slater in Sydney in 2011 I think it was with the ball coming right to left and Lockyer passing back inside to a flying Slater to go through untouched. After the game the commentators are talking to Billy and all he could say was that's Locky's, he was screaming stay inside at me because he had seen the defence were moving prone to following the passes wide. Just one example.

Plus, I reckon Johns has JT covered in spades! Although I think this whole JT v Johns debate is sort or like the whole Lewis v Johns debate that went on all those years ago. In my opinion, the push for Johns being the tied for the "greatest" came in response to Lewis previously being "the greatest"...it's great for the game to have the two "best" players come from either side of the border. It's a continuation of that sort of thing - JT is (basically) a halfback and now there's the debate of whether or not he's the equal of the "best ever" half-back in Johns. Again, down state lines.

I'll disagree with that mate. I think you put Lockyer at his physical peak v Thurston at his physical peak and it's no real competition. The only advantage you could only give JT would be he had more or a running game when compared to Lockyer post-2007...because Lockyer's knee injury destroyed one of his most devastating assets - explosive speed. Prior to 2007, Lockyer would bounce when he ran...after that, it looked like he was "surfing", for want of a better term. He had to change the whole way he played - in fact, others would have retired after that. Anyway, all of that is actually beside the point in my opinion - JT just doesn't have the same level of big game about him - and he's had more than his share of big games. He can be quite rocks and diamonds, have a close look at some of those origin games, wrong options, confusing his supports, overrunning his decoys. I can't remember Lockyer doing that too many times in those sorts of games. And then they were just different types of players - JT loves being in the middle of everything all the time, attacking retreating middle-thirds. Lockyer, conversely, was a natural second receiver who liked to see study how the defence was reacting to things before he would start injecting himself. This meant that one was much more visible than the other, just from an involvement perspective. I just can't imagine Thurston winning the Golden Boot in his current position and then fullback (that's why I disagree about "skills"). I REALLY can't imagine Thurston captaining Qld to 8 series wins in a row. And as good as JT is in big games and big moments, this was Lockyer's trademark. You'd be hard-pressed arguing anyone was better on that one, I can't think of anyone, that's for sure.

They win 1 out of 4 and all of a sudden JT becomes the greatest halfback??? I bet no one was thinking that in the first three matches until when he kicked the two field goals. He is a great player but not the greatest halfback. So he has played in the "8 in a row" dominance but why couldn't he win it last year with no Cooper Cronk? Qlders were talking shit like Blues were lucky that Cronk wasn't there but than again "The greatest halfback" was there, did anyone notice that? He needs players like Lockyer and/or Cronk to be along side him to be better and you can see why they have been having difficulties kick starting their competition every year cause he needs his team mates to wake up before they can win and if he can't do that I do not think he is the greatest. From NSW my favourite pivot is Andrew Johns and from QLD my favorite will always be Darren Lockyer. In stating this, Andrew Johns is the Greatest halfback and Lockyer being my Greatest 5/8

It comes down to raw ability versus what I would probably call determination. Thurston has skills Locky couldn't dream of. Likewise Joey. But I do think Locky just had an aura of determination. It's an almost indefinable quality.

Not right Tom. Guess which player has played in every game of those 8 series wins? Pretty sure it's only 1 player........... JT.

Yeah Thurston definitely gets my vote... Unlike a certain novacastrian halfback, he didn't feel the need to drug himself up during his career. Lockyer was definitely right up there but I think Thurston pips him at the post IMHO.

Thurston doesn't come anywhere near johns 2 games ago young ben hunt was giving Thurston a lesson in how a halfback should play

Thurston didn't win 8 state of origins in a row. The likes of Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith, Greg Inglis and Justin Hodges all together had much more to do with that. Just to name a few.

I assume you are leaving out The emperor of Lang Park as you don't considered him part of the modern era. Locky is streets ahead of both JT and Johns for me. He can easily lay a decent claim to two different positions in an all-time Australian XIII.

Great read JH...as I said above even though I rate Joey as the best it's next to impossible to argue with a well reasoned position like this. And really we're talking degrees of greatness when you're trying to split the best.

Well said mate. The media made Johns an immortal before had even finished. It was a disgrace.

This argument fails when you look at how Johns played behind beaten forward packs. If Thurston was from NSW, we wouldn't be having this discussion.