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Legend status doesn't make you Immortal

Roar Rookie
14th October, 2015
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The Cowboys will have to do it without Thurston in 2017. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Roar Rookie
14th October, 2015
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1438 Reads

For years the rugby league community has lived in awe of the legacy a select few have left behind. Players such as Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis, Arthur Beetson, and Andrew Johns.

These names will forever been synonymous with success and paving the way for the players of today.

In light of the recent NRL grand final, the call has been put out for North Queensland halfback Johnathan Thurston to be listed next to these great names. Immediately.

As a rugby league critic, I like to take the players of yesteryear and compare them to those currently lacing up the boots every weekend.

Understand this, Thurston is a brilliant player, a revolutionist if you will.

The way he can control a match by his quick thinking and unorthodox style has left oppositions baffled for the better part of a decade.

But does he really need the tag of an ‘Immortal’ in 2015?

Absolutely not.

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There are rumours circulating that suggest the ninth Immortal will be announced in 2016. Mal Meninga has been thrown around, but Darren Lockyer remains the hot tip.

Oh, and don’t forget Thurston of course.

Even though he is still playing with two years left on his contract and is ineligible to do so until 2023.

With eight Immortals listed in 107 years of the sport in this great nation; why is the trend all of a sudden to create as many as we can.

With a draft list of 20-plus potential Immortals floating around, I hope Churchill is looking down from his cloud in sheer dismay at the names expected to be named next to his.

Legend status does not make you Immortal.

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