Murgon’s biggest Cowboys fan meets Thurston

Cowboys fan, Kye Louis, got the surprise of his life when none other than former captain Johnathan Thurston arrives in town.

Cowboys fan Kaye Louis got the surprise of his life when Johnathan Thurston showed up in Murgon. Photo/Holly Cormack.

EVER since Johnathan Thurston led the Cowboys to a rollercoaster victory over the Brisbane Broncos at the 2015 Grand Final, Murgon's undisputed Cowboys mega fan Kye Louise has watched it on repeat - and last weekend Kye finally got to meet his idol, the future immortal himself when he came to town.

Seeing that Thurston was coming to Murgon, Kye's grandmother Suzanne jumped at the opportunity, reaching out to councillor Kathy Duff and Murgon Mustangs president Scott Prendergast to set up the surprise meeting.

"We saw in Murgon Moments that he was coming to Murgon, so I just rang Scott and Kathy Duff, and asked what were the odds of bringing Kaye in to meet him, because he's such a fan," Suzanne said.

"And because he can't play football, we thought it would be nice."

According to his grandfather, Greg Louis, Kye has an enormous poster of Thurston in his room and never gets tired of watching his hero kick the winning field goal back in 2015.

"Every time he comes to our place he puts it on," Greg said. "He won't be forgetting this any time soon."

Kye's mum, Ngaire Louis, said he would love nothing more than to play sports, but ongoing surgeries to fix his knees have stood in his way till now. A result of his down syndrome, the ligaments around Kye's knee's are loose, making it difficult for him to stand.

"His kneecaps dislocate all the time. He's got very loose ligaments because of his Down's, so he just falls over," Ngaire said. Kye is currently in recovery from his most recent surgery, just two weeks ago.

"We've had one lot of operations done, and it was a temporary fix, so hopefully this is the permanent fix," she said.

Following in his father Ashley Louis' footsteps, Kye also loves cricket and recently travelled to Brisbane to play indoor cricket with some of Australia's best.

"They had four Australian indoor cricket representatives and four Queensland representatives. They all took one player each and the kids had a great time," Ashley said.

Over the weekend, Thurston and the JT Academy visited Murgon and Cherbourg to bring their message of 'community resilience' to the South Burnett and encourage people to have those important conversations surrounding mental health.

The visit was made possible by the Darling Downs and West Moreton Primary Health Network (DDWMPHN) and facilitated by Health Promotion Officer Richard Henshaw from Darling Downs Health.

The event came about when councillor Kathy Duff reached out to Murgon Mustangs president Scott Prendergast, who launched the event through the 'Beyond the Nest' rugby league program.

While Kye still loves the Cowboys, he said it's just not the same without their star player.

Once recovered, he said he can't wait to have a kick around, so long as it's not with his brand new football, signed personally by Thurston.

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