Three Queensland sporting heroes call full-time
QUEENSLAND sports fans have been hit with an emotional triple whammy this weekend, as three of our favourite sons and daughters bow out.
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ONE was a scrawny kid who was initially given the cold shoulder and ended up working in an even colder room.
Another was a bigger boy heartbroken to be snubbed by his home city.
And then there is the netball star from the small town who, as a shy early teenager, had a penchant for self-doubt and who had overcome a family tragedy.
But the three of them — rugby league stars Johnathan Thurston and Sam Thaiday and netballer Laura Geitz — became Queensland sporting legends and now it’s time to say goodbye.
The true inspiration from sporting champions is often not where they finish. It’s what they went through to get there.
The glittering highlights packages grab our respect but it’s the journey that snatches the heartstrings.
That’s why yesterday’s retirement announcement by Geitz, today’s farewell to Johnathan Thurston when he plays his final game for the Cowboys against the Titans, and Sam Thaiday’s looming exit with the Broncos is such an emotional time for Queensland sports fans.
Mention their names and the first image that surges front of mind is often a warm and engaging smile. The robotic world of professional sport never dulled their senses or crushed their sense of humour.
But don’t be fooled by Thurston’s circus clown laugh, Thaiday’s serial mischief-making or the trademark Geitz grin.
Each was also blessed with a warrior spirit that underpinned their entire sporting life.
Geitz belongs in a special category of female sports stars with swimmer Susie O’Neill, whose sweet nature masks an inner steel that drove them to the top and kept them there.
Geitz did not simply play netball in Queensland. She was netball in Queensland. Even if you didn’t know netball you knew Laura.
The sport will miss her desperately, especially as it now has so many rival female sports elbowing in on their territory which have everything except a Laura Geitz.
Each of the three champions had their challenges.
Thurston was famously rejected by almost every NRL club because he was deemed too small.
“In high school no one was really interested in signing me,’’ Thurston said.
“I just decided to keep plugging away. I had a friend who was playing reserve grade at All Whites and working at Coles in Toowoomba and he got me a job there and I played footy on a Saturday afternoon.
“It was the Coles butcher shop. I remember that cold room. I was only 70kg and all skin and bone and had to unpack the meat. I couldn’t stand the cold. I can still feel it.’’
Geitz was tagged for stardom early but had challenges of a different sort, the most significant when her father Ross was killed in a farming accident in 2013, leaving Laura feeling “numb’’ for six months.
Geitz started school at the tiny Allora State School but when she caught the bus to Scots Presbyterian Girls’ College in Warwick 25km away it felt like the big city.
Geitz had a growth spurt before heading to Warwick and, with newly-fitted braces, felt acutely self-conscious and that everyone was looking at her.
Then she found netball, a switch was flicked and a driven inner woman was unleashed.
“I was 13 years of age and I came home from my first season at Scots and I told Mum that I found out what I was going to do with the rest of my life,’’ Geitz said.
“I was going to play netball for my state and my country and I wanted to go on and captain. I’m very blessed. The question that is sometimes flying around in our household, “If you could be doing any job in the world, what would you do?’’
“I come back to what I’ve done. It was living the dream. It’s not to say there weren’t challenges along the way but I think the biggest thing for me is that I’m exceptionally grateful for what I’ve been lucky enough to experience at the Firebirds level and internationally.’’
Thaiday’s story also has many inspiring threads right back to its origins for he was born into a household which had no big interest in rugby league.
His mother, from Western Australia, was a hockey player and his father, originally from Yam Island in the Torres Strait, played tennis and squash in a world far different from the one of forensic scrutiny in which their son exists today.
When The Courier-Mail once contacted the Thaidays chasing early photos of Sam they were told that the family didn’t own a camera when Sam was a boy.
Like Thurston, Thaiday was no silver-spoon job.
A passionate fan of the North Queensland Cowboys, he was shattered when they had no interest in him.
“I had been on the hill from the very first game,’’ Thaiday said in his recently released autobiography Tries, Lies and Meat Pies.
“I had screamed myself hoarse supporting that team in the toughest times.
“I would have loved to have been part of building something great there.’’
Instead he went to the Broncos to carve his own colourful story in which there was never a try, a lie or a meat pie far away.
Thaiday on our minds
SAM Thaiday has been on a hair-raising ride with the Broncos, even if his curly locks don’t flourish like they used to.
The larrikin whose fun-loving nature has brought light to the Broncos will enjoy the perfect Father’s Day party when he plays his final regular-season home game against Manly tomorrow at Suncorp Stadium.
The 33-year-old has carved out a remarkable 15-year career at Red Hill, amassing 29 Origins and 34 Tests for Australia ahead of his 303rd club fixture for his beloved Broncos.
That’s not bad for a kid from Townsville who arrived at the Broncos at 17 sporting wild afro hair and bushy sideburns.
“I used to call them my afro straps,” Thaiday said.
“I had the mother-in-law cutting my hair for a period of time so it was great, I didn’t have to pay for haircuts.”
In a code that is often too serious, Big Sammy loves a laugh. But when he walks down the Suncorp tunnel tomorrow with his daughters Gracie and Ellsie, he will fight back the tears.
“I will be emotional,” he said.
“It’s Father’s Day as well, so there will be no sleep-in, the girls will no doubt wake me up with breakfast in bed.
“I never would have thought it my wildest dreams I would play 300 games for the Broncos and achieve what I have in the game. It will be a great celebration not just for me and my family, but all the Broncos fans.”
Thaiday won a grand final with the Broncos in 2006 and hopes to finish with a premiership finale this season.
Teammate Anthony Milford said Thaiday – who is one of just two forwards in Brisbane’s history to have played 300 games – would be sorely missed on and off the field.
“I can’t speak highly enough of Sam. He has done everything in the game and we want to send him out in the right way,” Milford said.
The Broncos are sending Thaiday off in style at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow, with free wigs for fans, limited-edition T-shirts for sale and on-field access after the game. Gates open at 1pm
Won’t be the same without JT
FROM Cape York to Coolangatta, you would be hard-pressed to find a Queenslander who is not a JT fan today.
Millions of people across the country have been entertained, gobsmacked and left heartbroken by the feats of Johnathan Thurston over more than a decade, and tonight will be the final time fans will get to witness it.
Hundreds of supporters have bid their farewells to the champion player through personal messages of thanks and support, with many online describing today as “a sad day for rugby league”.
“It is sad to see him go,” supporter Julie Powell said.
“He’s one of the true characters of the game and not to mention the number of times he’s been there to help Queensland win.
“There are so many amazing highlights of his, but seeing him wheeled out on to Suncorp in a wheelchair (during State of Origin Game 3, 2011 to farewell Darren Lockyer) shows what a true legend he is.”
Thurston’s contribution to grassroots footy, indigenous communities and charities across the country has earnt him a legion of fans like no player before him.
And as the final buzzer for tonight’s North Queensland Cowboys and Gold Coast Titans game sounds, there will inevitably be a few tears shed by his longtime faithful fans.
Originally published as Three Queensland sporting heroes call full-time
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