Johnathan Thurston and Arthur Beetson are the greatest Indigenous players of all, writes Paul Kent

PAUL KENT: Johnathan Thurston and Arthur Beetson stand tall as the greatest Indigenous rugby league talents of all time.

JUST a few weeks back when his calf was still strong but their numbers were down Johnathan Thurston stood in front of his North Queensland teammates and spoke direct and strong.

“Opportunity,” he said, and with that he spoke about the injuries at the Cowboys and the young kids coming in to do the job where the likes of Matt Scott no longer could and so he reminded them of the opportunity all those players had.

Opportunities seem infinite when you are young. It is the veteran who knows the reality.

“Don’t blow the opportunity when you’re young,” Thurston said. “You might never get another chance.”

Who knew Thurston would fall himself soon after, that skinny calf muscle finding a way to tear.

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Thurston is a once in a generation player. Photo: Mark Evans

The message is clear for the Cowboys, though. They are down on numbers and have every excuse but, just like he plays, Thurston has been driving them, trying to make every opportunity a winner.

As we head into Indigenous Round it is not absurd to declare Thurston is the greatest indigenous player of his day.

And alongside Arthur Beetson, he is the best of any day.

Beetson stood over the game when he played. He earned an unfair reputation for being lazy as a young player and it carried him throughout his career but those who played alongside him knew better.

By the time Jack Gibson arrived at Eastern Suburbs he was in the midst of one of the greatest growth periods in the game.

I was talking to Ron Massey about this many years later and he spoke of travelling to America with Jack and picking up ideas from Dick Nolan, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and how they took home a leadership questionnaire that Nolan gave his players every year and gave a pretty good insight into them.

Arthur Beetson was an unstoppable force.

Gibson gave it to his players and sent the answers to America to be analysed and he and Massey looked at each other when the results came back.

Not only was Beetson the clear leader, they attached a note to say Beetson had recorded the greatest score they had ever seen.

“Why not take notice of it?” Gibson said, and so he replaced Ron Coote with Beetson as his captain.

Beetson was a colossus in the middle. He wore number 11, then designated for a prop, even though he packed in to the second row. The explanation was simple.

“Bunny Reilly complained it was like trying to hold up a waterbed,” Massey said.

It was a time when the game took scrummaging seriously and the second rowers couldn’t hold Beetson at prop so he moved back in the scrum for balance. Still he dominated the game.

A teenage Thurston with the Bulldogs in 2002. Photo: Brett Costello

Thurston’s transformation is huge.

When I first came across him he was a shy boy still to play first grade and we spent half a day driving around Sydney with his manager Sam Ayoub trying to find him a place to live. He barely looked up from the back seat and every place we walked in to, some of them you wouldn’t house your dog in, he agreed was OK because he didn’t want to offend the real estate agent.

Ayoub tipped him for something bigger but nobody foresaw what he would become.

Early on he looked to be either too slow for his size or too small for his speed. What couldn’t be seen were the intangibles.

The Cowboys were desperate for a halfback about this time and with Brent Sherwin and Braith Anasta having just extended their deals they were in no position to offer Thurston a similar deal and Graham Murray got him to Townsville.

He was just one game into his career and a little hindsight suggests it was the best thing for him with so many of those Bulldogs players going on to get themselves in trouble.

Thurston escaped that and made Townsville his own.

Nobody is more comfortable with their celebrity than Thurston. He still laughs like a schoolboy, stops for every autograph. He is still the last to leave the training paddocks in Townsville as he works on his kicking. Short kicks and long, sometimes his goal kicking.

Thurston’s great talent is the moment. Nobody has a greater sense for when something is needed, combined with the cold nerve to pull it off, than Thurston.

In many ways Beetson was similar. His best was saved for the big stage.

They are separated by generations, these two men, yet their leadership of men emerges as their most speakable quality. It says something.

As the indigenous players celebrate their heritage this weekend Thurston’s availability is undisclosed.

Thurston has the ability to seize the greatest moment. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

The one black mark in Beetson’s career came when he ran recruitment for the Roosters.

He was known for his eye and there wasn’t a schoolboy carnival where he didn’t take back a prized diamond to Bondi.

He often found the best.

One day club supremo Nick Politis asked Beetson about this kid he was tipped into but Beetson warned Politis off. He wasn’t sure the kid would make it so on that recommendation Politis dropped off.

The kid signed with Canterbury, then later headed to North Queensland.