NRL great Johnathan Thurston reveals which club he came close to leaving Cowboys for

Four-time Dally M Player of the Year Johnathan Thurston has revealed how close he came to leaving North Queensland Cowboys to join Penrith Panthers.

The ex-Australia, Queensland and Indigenous All Stars representative was the latest guest on the Block In A Bar podcast.

Thurston, now 39, enjoyed a stellar career in Australia, having made his debut with Canterbury Bulldogs in 2002 before joining the Cowboys for 2005. 

He made close to 300 appearances for North Queensland and won every individual honour in the game including the Golden Boot Award, the Harry Sunderland Medal and the Clive Churchill Medal, having led the Cowboys to NRL glory in 2015. 

For Queensland, he didn’t miss a single State of Origin series in 12 years and hung up the boots in 2018 with 345 NRL appearances to his name, 37 State of Origins and 38 Australia caps. 

But it was almost a different story for the Cowboys’ best-ever player, who won the Dally M Captain of the Year in 2015, having kicked the winning field goal in extra time for a 17-16 victory over Brisbane Broncos.  

Johnathan Thurston reveals how close he came to leaving Cowboys

“2013 I was off-contract and the closest that I’d ever thought about leaving was to go to Penrith with Gus (Phil Gould),” Thurston said on Bloke In A Bar podcast. 

“I had a meeting with Gus, and then part of the package would have been Channel 9 and some other corporates as well, living in Sydney and being the face of their Indigenous programmes and all that stuff which I’m passionate about.

“I remember telling my manager before he dropped me off at the Sydney airport, ‘I can do four years down here, let’s do the deal down here and that’ll be it.’

“Then I got back to Townsville, having the conversation with my wife, I’ve agreed to go to Penrith, and she’s like ‘Well you’re going on your own!’ 

“I pleaded with her to give me four years in Sydney and we pretty much can live anywhere in Australia after that.

“A great mate of mine came around as well and I had a conversation with him and I think it might have been the next day, I rang my manager and said ‘Have you told Gus yet?’ and he said ‘Yeah they’re pumped and doing the press release.’

“I told him I can’t go, the wife’s telling me I’ve got to go by myself and he was like ‘Nah, I haven’t told him yet.’

“He was good like that. I had to ring Gus and let him know I’m not coming, I reckon it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to tell him I wasn’t coming to Penrith. 

“Eventually, I blurted it out to him and had to turn him down.”

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