Johnathan Thurston

Johnathan Dean Thurston (born 25 April 1983) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the National Rugby League (NRL).

Thurston was an Australian international, Queensland State of Origin and Indigenous All Stars representative, playing at or, and was a noted goal-kicker.

Thurston has been an assistant coach of the Queensland rugby league team since 2021.

Thurston is regarded as one of the greatest Australian league players.

The Bulldogs eventually signed Thurston in the 2001 NRL season for 'nil playing fee'.

Once Thurston had the opportunity he was selected for the Queensland U-19 side that year.

Thurston made his NRL debut for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in round 13 of the 2002 NRL season against the Penrith Panthers, coming off the interchange bench in the 38–24 win at Penrith Stadium.

In round 21 against the North Queensland Cowboys, Thurston scored his first and second NRL career tries in Canterbury-Bankstown's 34–26 win at Dairy Farmers Stadium.

Thurston scored 2 tries from 7 games in his debut season.

As a specialist in the halves, Thurston was behind established Canterbury halves pairing Brent Sherwin and Braith Anasta and many of his critics still believed he was still too small in stature to be competitive in the NRL.

Thurston was limited to 7 appearances for the 2002 season due to the Bulldogs' salary cap breach, as his payments for first-grade matches would have continued to breach the NRL's salary cap.

Thurston played in 15 matches and scored four tries in 2003.

Johnathan Thurston started his career at the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs, where he won the 2004 NRL premiership.

Although Thurston never cemented a starting position and only took part in 29 matches throughout three seasons at Canterbury-Bankstown, in his final year in 2004, he was part of the Premiership-winning side, coming off the bench in the club's 16–13 win over the Sydney Roosters in the 2004 NRL Grand Final.

Thurston wore jersey #18 for the match as he had been a late inclusion for regular captain Steve Price who, in the lead up to the match, was ruled out with a knee injury.

As Price had initially housed and mentored him upon his arrival in Sydney, Thurston gave his premiership ring to Price as a thank you.

Price was then able to give Thurston another ring in return.

Towards the end of the season it was announced that 2004 would be his final year for the Sydney club as he was signed by the North Queensland Cowboys for 2005.

Thurston played 7 matches and scored 4 tries for the year.

At the end of the season, Thurston was approached by New Zealand but turned them down in favour of representing Australia and Queensland.

He moved to the North Queensland Cowboys in 2005, playing in that year's grand final.

In that year, he made his debut for Queensland, before making his Australian debut in 2006.

Thurston was the only player to play in all 24 games of Queensland's eight-year State of Origin winning streak from 2006, having played 36 consecutive Origin matches from his debut in 2005.

He was the 2008 Wally Lewis medalist for State of Origin player of the series.

Also in 2008, he was named as halfback of the Australian Aboriginal team of the century.

Thurston broke the record for most points in State of Origin history during the 2015 State of Origin series when smashing New South Wales 52–6.

Also in 2015, Thurston co-captained the North Queensland Cowboys, along with teammate Matt Scott, to their inaugural NRL Premiership.

He was also the 2015 Clive Churchill Medallist for grand final man of the match.

In 2015, he became the first ever four-time Dally M Medallist for the NRL season's best player, and later that year became the first ever three-time winner of the Golden Boot Award for the World's best player.

In 2015, it was revealed that Thurston had wanted to stay at Canterbury beyond the 2004 season but the management at the club had re-signed Sherwin and Anasta.

In 2018, Thurston founded and launched the Johnathan Thurston Academy (JTAcademy) of which is he now the Managing Director.

The JTAcademy provides a forum, which encourages Australian youth to access the educational and vocational resources needed to secure meaningful employment.

Thurston was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to a Gunggari (Indigenous Australian) mother and a New Zealand Māori father.

He began playing rugby league at a very young age for Souths Sunnybank RLFC in Brisbane's southside.

At 12, Thurston signed a scholarship deal with the South Queensland Crushers.

Later during his youth he moved to Toowoomba where he attended St. Mary's College, playing rugby league and also a great success playing Rugby Union for the school and the Toowoomba Rugby League's All Whites club.

Although a stand-out player at school and club level at 18 years of age, none of the National Rugby League clubs were willing to sign the Queenslander with many citing his small size as a problem.

According to Thurston's manager, Sam Ayoub, a number of the clubs were not even willing to take him for free.

Only St George Illawarra Dragons coach Nathan Brown was willing to sign him because he was going to play for nothing.

Ultimately, Ayoub negotiated with the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs to sign him as he had promised Thurston's mother he would keep an eye on him, and Belmore (the Bulldogs' home ground) was closer to where he lived.