How Billy Walters was dragged into Spencer Leniu, Johnathan Thurston blow-up

Johnathan Thurston wasn’t the only one who copped a spray from Spencer Leniu on Friday night. Peter Badel reveals who else the fiery Roosters prop had in his sights at Suncorp Stadium.

Johnathan Thurston looks agitated.

He is inside the bowels of Suncorp Stadium, pacing up and down, looking as if he’s getting ready for Origin battle at his one-time field of dreams.

This time, his enemy isn’t a New South Wales player.

It’s Roosters coach Trent Robinson.

It’s more than an hour after the Broncos-Roosters clash at Suncorp Stadium night and the narrative has shifted from Sydney’s epic win to the explosive bust-up between Thurston and Robinson’s front-row enforcer Spencer Leniu.

Thurston is steaming about Leniu’s stunning on-field attack.

He is waiting for Robinson, looking for answers.

The tirade is still fresh, ringing in his ears.

“You are a f***wit”.

Spencer Leniu and Johnathan Thurston exchange words in a heated confrontation at Suncorp Stadium. Picture: NRL Photos

With those words, fired at Thurston by Leniu, the Roosters villain ripped open the wounds of the Ezra Mam racism scandal and sparked a fresh firestorm at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

This time, Mam wasn’t the victim. It was another Indigenous identity. Someone of far greater standing and gravitas in the code.

NRL legend and future Immortal Thurston.

In a split-second, Thurston went from being a Channel 9 commentator to a fired-up Maroons icon whose old competitive juices were stirred by what he viewed as a shock and unprovoked attack.

The Leniu-JT bust-up spilled from the sidelines, involved stunned Broncos playmaker Ben Hunt and security guards, then rumbled into the bowels of Suncorp where a shaken Thurston sensationally fronted Robinson.

This was WWE-style drama.

Except the script was genuine.

The flashpoint began in the 56th minute of the Roosters’ inspirational 26-16 defeat of the Broncos.

Thurston was waiting to speak to Roosters coach Trent Robinson before the post match press conference. Picture: NRL Photos

Robinson called Leniu to the bench for a well-earned rest.

It was the first time Leniu was facing the Broncos since his explosive racial attack on Mam, calling the Brisbane pivot a “monkey” in their historic and dramatic Las Vegas season opener last year.

Thurston, a proud Indigenous man, slammed Leniu at the time. He said the game had failed Mam. He wanted Leniu banned for at least three months. Leniu ultimately got eight weeks.

“The NRL had a great opportunity there to make a stand, not only for the game but for society as well,” Thurston said at the time.

“I don’t think the eight weeks is sufficient for what has been said and for the mental scars that have been brought up. And what our culture has endured over the history, since colonisation.

“I thought it was a great opportunity to go for 12 weeks (and a) blanket ban for all racial verification if you are found guilty.”

Against that backdrop, Leniu clearly had some seeds of latent discontent when he was summoned to the Suncorp bench by Robinson and Thurston appeared in his vista.

Broncos fans began booing Leniu, who shouted back at the Brisbane faithful, “Yeah, you f***wits”.

Tensions were high during the game, as Leniu came up against the Broncos for the first time since the Ezra Mam racism scandal. Picture: NRL Photos

As he came to the bench, he crossed paths with Thurston, who was perched near the sideline as a commentator for Channel 9.

Thurston’s anti-racism stance clearly wasn’t forgotten by Leniu. He shot daggers at Thurston, eyeballed him, and said, ‘You are a f***wit, too.”

“JT looked bewildered,” a sideline onlooker told this masthead.

“Spencer was looking straight at him, 100 per cent he said it to JT.”

Fast forward to full-time and round two breaks out.

It is understood Thurston approached Leniu and said, “What’s your problem?” Leniu goes on the attack again, allegedly calling the Cowboys champion a “f***ing c***”.

The genesis of Leniu’s anger has its roots in the Mam saga on twin fronts.

Not singularly over the racism fallout, but Mam’s own off-field ordeal last October, when he pleaded guilty to drug driving after a head-on collision with an Uber driver in a vehicle that contained a four-year-old girl.

Leniu believes Thurston is a hypocrite and calls him out on it.

As the pair face off, Leniu unloads, saying words to the effect of: “Why didn’t you blow up and go as heavy at Ezra Mam as you did with me”.

Billy Walters tried to shake hands with Leniu but was snubbed by the Roosters forward. Picture: NRL Imagery

Seconds earlier, Broncos hooker Billy Walters attempts to shake Leniu’s hand.

The Roosters firebrand snubs Walters, slamming him as the “snitch” who gave him up during the Mam racism spat. Walters was at dummy half when Leniu labelled Mam a “monkey” at Allegiant Stadium.

Walking off Suncorp, Broncos playmaker Hunt sees Leniu and Thurston in heated talks and tries to calm the pair down.

The argument spills down the tunnel, with Suncorp security staff moving to break the pair up.

The drama appears over. In reality, another chapter is about to unfold.

Thurston was due to enter the Roosters sheds as part of Channel 9’s coverage, but the Cowboys great hands the post-match interview duties to his former Queensland Origin teammate Cam Smith.

While Smith goes into the Roosters sheds, Thurston refuses to leave the ground.

He looks unsettled. Adrenaline pumping. He stands outside the Suncorp Stadium media area talking with Channel 9 staff, waiting for Robinson to emerge from the Roosters sheds.

Sick of waiting, Thurston begins his march towards the Roosters rooms, which, as the away side, are located at the opposite end of the ground.

As he heads towards the Roosters sheds, Thurston, by sheer happenstance, bumps into Mam, the very Indigenous ‘brother’ he backed to the hilt during the Leniu racism storm.

Thurston and Mam exchange smiles and have a brief chat. Thurston then looks up. Robinson is walking towards him, headed for the press conference.

Thurston motions towards Robinson and the pair stop to lock horns.

Robinson begins talking. It’s largely civil. There is no shouting, but the discussion becomes animated at one point when Thurston appears to get worked up, saying repeatedly: “I never said that. I never said that.”

It’s believed to be a reference to a podcast last year in which Thurston, in the eyes of Leniu and the Roosters camp, launched a fresh attack on the prop well after he had served his eight-week ban.

The moment Leniu confronts Thurston

Roosters skipper James Tedesco looks uncomfortable as he watches the pair trade claims and counter-claims.

Looking for an exit, Tedesco would’ve used rather than attend the post-match press conference, which Robinson uses as a platform to defend Leniu’s actions, intimating Thurston made a beeline for the Roosters prop.

“Spencer didn’t go and approach anybody, so I don’t know why you guys (media) are trying to put it on Spencer here,” he said.

“You guys just have to be careful with the way you guys are asking questions as well.

“There’s no harm done on either side. People won’t always agree but that’s life. As long as people don’t cross the line or say the wrong thing.

“It’s a discussion between two men, I don’t think that’s the end of the world.

“Just cool your jets when it comes to accusations around somebody.

“The way you guys are questioning there, you have already formed an opinion.”

Thurston left Suncorp around midnight with probably no clear resolution given that Leniu, judging by his actions on Saturday, feels he is being victimised and will stand by his word.

Perhaps the one certainty is the undercurrent of bad blood will linger for some time, and possibly ignite again when Mam one day returns to face Leniu in the heat of battle.

JT could even be sideline for Channel 9 watching on.