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Opinion

Is Johnathan Thurston really better than Andrew Johns?

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Roar Guru
5th May, 2020
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2622 Reads

A funny yet endless argument is who is better between Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston.

Voters tend to give Thurston the edge over Johns, as they did in a recent Daily Telegraph poll on the NRL’s best-ever halfback. I understand why this might be the case: he scored more points, made more tries and played more games, plus he retired only two years ago.

But I do have some statistics to share.

Andrew Johns scored 80 tries, 917 goals and 22 field goals, adding up to 2176 points in 249 games (32.13 try-scoring percentage and 11.45 point-scoring average).

Johnathan Thurston scored 90 tries, 923 goals and 16 field goals, adding up to 2222 in 323 games (27.87 try-scoring percentage and 14.54 point-scoring average).

Johnathan Thurston

(Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

But if we were to compare Johns to Thurston after JT’s first 249 games, he had 81 tries and only 1632 points. Let’s look at their overall accomplishments.

Andrew Johns Jonathan Thurston
Premierships 2 2
State of Origin 5 11
World Cup 2 1
Dally M Medal 3 4
World Club Challenge 0 1
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Both also have legendary grand final-winning moments. That said, we also have to take into consideration Andrew Johns’s injury-riddled career. If he hadn’t suffered as many injuries, he would have accomplished much more in his career and I dare say would have cracked 3000 points.

Andrew Johns for the Knights

(AAP Image/Action Photographics/Grant Trouville)

Let’s take a look at the respective spines they captained to a premiership in 2001 (Johns) and 2015 (Thurston).

2001 2015
Fullback Robbie O’Davis Lachlan Coote
Five-eighth Sean Rudder Michael Morgan
Halfback Andrew Johns Johnathan Thurston
Hooker Danny Buderus Jake Granville

The difference is you have a second-rower playing five-eighth in 2001 and Andrew Johns coached the 2001 side, not Michael Hagan.

If we did a head-to-head with Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston, we’d see they played each other seven times, with John winning four and Thurston three.

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Andrew Johns didn’t just change the game; he revolutionised it. Johns was also a far better defender and put his body on the line.

So back to the question: who’s better between Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston? Not as a Knights fan but as a rugby league lover the answer has to be Andrew Johns.

Thurston didn’t redefine the game to anywhere near the degree Johns did. How did Johns change the game? He completely changed the landscape not with the skills he had but in the way he used them. He didn’t flip the table; he picked it up to chuck out the window and redesigned the damn thing his way.

There’s a massive difference between having skills and using them. Andrew Johns did things only he could do, and that’s why he’s the greatest of all time.

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