PRENTICE: Exclusive interview with JT’s crowning glory

Hi there – I’m Johnathan Thurson’s headgear and you can call me Madison.

I haven’t written anything before on The Roar so please go easy. Debutants should get a little leeway here and there.

Well, this has been one heck of a week.

My boss hasn’t had cause to need me this week but I know I will be there on Sunday night when he plays the biggest game of his life against the Broncs.

Yes, this is the biggest game for sure. Of his career. JT has been to two grand finals before – but perhaps those were not his time.

And yes, he has played many huge games for Queensland against NSW and he has also proudly worn the green and gold of the Australian Kangaroos on many occasions, but Sunday is the game that will define his entire career.

I’m sure you know that my boss is co-captain of the North Queensland Cowboys and this is the opportunity he has been craving. There have been lots of finals near-misses in recent years for a variety of reasons.

And I’m excited that I’ll be there with him from beginning to end. Who wouldn’t be? JT is the very best player on the planet and there is a very good chance that my name – ‘Madison’ – will be on the front page of many newspapers and heading up TV footage Monday morning.

JT has been very good to me ever since we first got together. He carefully adjusts my straps at strategic times in games – and he pats my head repeatedly after successful goal-kicks.

Geez he’s good at those. They invariably curl in from the widest of angles, and at times when the Cowboys need them most.

I love being up top when he is scheming for the next big play in the game. No, I tell a lie. When he’s planning the next play that will happen in three or four tackles time.

It really is uncanny, freakish some say, but I cannot name any player who consistently foresees opportunities and turns them into on-field reality as if it were a chef roasting pork.

I think I help JT a heck of a lot, just by being there. He gets hammered more than any player in the NRL and if I can absorb some of that impact – legal or otherwise – I’m doing my job.

But I’ll say this. It’s pretty hot, sweaty and stinky for 80 minutes sitting atop the world’s premier rugby league player, a future Immortal as some have said. He’s got an amazing shock of black hair and he’s always on the go, whether it’s time for defence or attack.

I love him – and you must if you like rugby league – and I reckon I’ll be filthy at fulltime if the mighty Cowboys fulfil their amazing potential and rope in the Broncos to win their first-ever title.

Yep, that’s right. Filthy.

The boss will give me away to some kid he spots sitting just beyond the ANZ Stadium perimeter. Noooo!

If the mighty Cowboys win, I really want to stay with him all night and get sloshed with beer, champagne and whatever else

I feel I am an intricate part of Johnathan Thurston magic.

Please, please hang onto me boss.

I richly deserve to run that victory lap just as much as you.