From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johnathan Thurston

Personal information
Full name	Johnathan Dean Thurston
Date of birth	25 April, 1983
Place of birth	Brisbane, Australia
Height	1.79 m
Weight	83 kg
Position	Half-back
Club information
Current club	North Queensland
Youth clubs
2000-01	All Whites Toowoomba
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
2002-04 2005-present	Canterbury North Queensland	29 (10) 39 (16)
Representative teams**
2005-2006 2006	Queensland Australia	6 (19) 5 (34)
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only and correct as of 23 August 2006. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of November 25 2006.

Johnathan Dean Thurston (born April 25, 1983 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian rugby league player who currently plays for the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League competition. His position of choice is at half-back.

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Canterbury Bulldogs 1.2 North Queensland Cowboys 2 Life away from football 3 Career 4 External links

Johnathan Thurston made his first grade debut for the Bulldogs against the Penrith Panthers at Penrith Football Stadium on June 8, 2002 in round 13 of the competition. In 2004, in his third season in first grade for the Bulldogs, Johnathan Thurston was part of the Bulldogs NRL Premiership winning side. He was then signed up by the North Queensland Cowboys for the 2005 NRL season until 2006.

2005 proved to be a turning point in Thurston's short career. He was easily the most consistent player in the competition, this consistency earned him his first state of origin jersey. In his first match he was voted player's player after being in the top 4 tacklers and kicking an amazing field goal to force the game into extra time. He was awarded with the Dally M. Medal in 2005 in his first season with the Cowboys for his impressive displays throughout the season. He also played an integral part in guiding the North Queensland Cowboys to their first ever NRL Grand Final, which they lost 30-16 to the Wests Tigers.

In 2006 Thurston started the year somehow playing much better football than last year. His performances already had him streaks ahead on the Dally M medal tally after only a handful of games. After about round ten his form started to drop off as the Cowboys season went downhill. However he was still instrumental in Queensland's sensational State of Origin Series win as the Maroons recovered from defeat in the first game to take the Series 2-1. Trailing with only 10 mins to go in the deciding game, an audacious break took Thurston into space to set up Brent Tate to bring Queensland within touching distance of New South Wales before a Darren Lockyer try sealed the win for the Maroons. Thurston also showed tremendous courage and mental strength in recovering from a disclocated knee at the end of the regular NRL season to make the Kanagaroo squad for the Tri-Nations tournament. He was chosen to play halfback in the Australian team for the first and second game of the Tri-Nations against New Zealand where he played excellent football. In the first game, Thurston gained man of the match honours. Despite losing the jumper to Ben Hornby for the first game against Great Britain he returned for the 2nd game against GB and kept his place for the final. In one of the best Test matches in Rugby League history, with the scores locked at 12-12 and the game into its 2nd half of golden point extra time, a typically brilliant Thurston break allowed him to set Darren Lockyer away to win the series for The Kanagaroos.

2007 shapes to be a bumper year for Thurston as 2007 promises to be a huge year for the champion halback. The North queensland signing of Jason Smith will surely help Thurston's conbinations as well as lend him some words of advice in experience. He is the newly appointed captain for the Cowboys.

For the first game for the Cowboys in 2007 he helped set up many tries leading to a 23-16 beat over the Broncos.

In late 2005, Thurston was one of 12 of the hottest players in the NRL that posed for the League Of Their Own 2006 calendar that was produced in the style of the famous Dieux du Stade calendars to raise money for the Koori Kids foundation. Thurston was chosen to appear on the cover of the calendar.

Also, he is one of Cleo magazine's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors for 2006.

He was the first Aboriginal in football to have a contract over a million dollars.^{[citation needed]}

National Rugby League

• Position - Halfback/Five-eighth
• Previous clubs - All Whites Toowoomba 2000-2001,Canterbury Bulldogs 2002-2004
• NRL debut - Bulldogs v Penrith Panthers, Penrith Stadium, Round 13, 2002
• Career games - 72
• Career tries - 26
• Career goals - 77
• Career field goals - 2
• Total career points - 260

Representative

• State of Origin - 6 games for Queensland, 2005-
• Test Matches - 3 Tests for Australia, 2006-

• Johnathan Thurston Official Player Profile
• State of Origin Offical website Rugby League Player Stats
• Koori Kids Foundation