Johnathan Thurston’s slow start to the season doesn’t mean the Cowboys legend is finished

JOHNATHAN Thurston is 34, he’s achieved everything in the game, is coming off a shoulder reconstruction and has a young family. Is it any wonder he’s started slowly? But that doesn’t mean he’s finished, writes MATTHEW JOHNS.

Johnathan Thurston is still recovering from injury. (AAP Image/David Rowland)

MY coach Warren Ryan once told me about a conversation he had with front-rower Peter Tunks as the ageing champion was having a rather slow start to a season.

The Wok asked Tunksy if he was “Considering having a go this weekend?”

Tunks replied: “Warren, let the kids get you to September, and from there I’ll win it for you.”

I was reminded of Tunksy’s quote while watching one of our greatest champions, Johnathan Thurston, sitting in the press conference last week answering questions about his own slow start in 2018.

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Peter Tunks took a while to get going later in his career.

I called Peter Tunks last Sunday morning to ensure I got his quote right after all these years, and how he felt it related to Thurston’s current plight.

Tunksy told me, in the late ‘80s he spent two years playing his off-season as captain of Leeds in the English Rugby League, and while over there, he became great friends with Wigan skipper and demigod Ellery Hanley.

Ellery Hanley worked very hard to stay in shape.

Peter said he’d never seen anyone train as hard as Hanley. Balmain Tigers players would soon learn that, during Ellery’s stint with them at the end of 1988. Blocker Roach remarked that Ellery would do 400 and 800 metre sprints to relax in his spare time.

When Tunks asked Ellery why he continued to punish himself so savagely on the training park, the English champion replied, “You get to 30 in our sport, you don’t get any better. What you achieve from then on is based wholly on your motivation and how hard you are willing to work.”

Motivation. It’s the fuel which drives every champion.

Back at Canterbury, Tunks was saying to his old coach, that while rugby league still excited him in the big games, it held little appeal in March and April.

Thurston is still recovering from injury. (AAP Image/David Rowland)

Thurston is 34 years of age, he’s achieved absolutely everything in the game, he’s coming off a shoulder reconstruction and has a young family, which most formers players will agree, starts to raise internal questions about how to spend your Sundays. A relaxed picnic in the park or getting physically battered for 80 minutes?

I’d be more surprised if Thurston didn’t have some motivational issues.

It’s hard to believe some people are criticising Thurston. (AAP Image/Darren England)

You see, it takes incredible energy to do what Thurston has done over his career. In particular, his last five seasons. I’ve never seen a player give so much.

Each week, turn up and not just control your football team, but also be the bloke who comes up with the brilliant plays, the effort plays, at times the miracle plays, which separate victory from defeat.

You don’t just turn up on game day and flick a switch. All of these performances are the culmination of hard work and intense preparation.

The most underrated skill of every champion is their ability to get themselves up emotionally for the contest every week, and Thurston has been able to do that.

Doing this is like being the bloke who’s employed to paint the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It never stops. For the painter, as he finishes the north end, he immediately restarts again at the south. Over and over and over, until the day he quits.

For JT, as one game finishes, another week begins, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Bloody hard work.

When you’ve done the things Thurston has done, you can be excused, like Tunksy, for thinking rugby league in March and April is a bit of a drag.

So what does 2018 hold for Thurston?

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Originally published as Johnathan Thurston’s slow start to the season doesn’t mean the Cowboys legend is finished