Is Thurston better than Johns? Is Thurston the GOAT?

[GC2015]

Johnathon Thurston
Dally M medals - 4
Golden Boot awards - 3
Clive Churchill medals - 1
NRL Premierships - 2
NRL grand finals - 3
SOO series wins - 9
SOO MOTM awards - 5
World Cup titles - 1
World Cup final MOTM awards - 1

Club games - 268
Club tries - 83
Club goals - 724
Club field goals - 14

SOO games - 33
SOO tries - 5
SOO goals - 94
SOO field goals - 2

International tests - 32
International tries - 12
International goals - 142
International field goals - 0

Andrew Johns
Dally M medals - 3
Golden Boot awards - 2
Clive Churchill medals - 1
NRL Premierships - 2
NRL grand finals - 2
SOO series wins - 5
SOO MOTM awards - 4
World Cup titles - 2
World Cup final MOTM awards - 1

Club games - 252
Club tries - 81
Club goals - 929
Club field goals - 23

SOO games - 23
SOO tries - 4
SOO goals - 37
SOO field goals - 4

International tests - 24
International tries - 7
International goals - 78
International field goals - 0

I have listed the achievement and stats I believe are important above. So Thurston is either equal or has Johns covered in just about every category except world cup titles and club goals. Of course Thurston is still playing and will likely better his club goals and probably add another world cup title in 2017. So has Thurston officially gone past Johns in greatness? Is he the GOAT? Many of Thurston's records mentioned above are actually all-time records so that must be considered when discussing his GOAT status.

 

[mikey127]

No

 

[Broar]

He's better than Johns but Lockyer would be GOAT.

 

[raskolnikov]

Lockyer would be GOAT.

Lol. No.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Way too hard to compare era's. How do you compare a Clive Churchill to a Johns, etc.

Lockyer is better than Thurston anyway. Dominated two different positions.

 

[The Darkman]

No arrests. No drug issues. Played in 2 positions at the highest level. His only drawback was he didn't have Channel 9 constantly trumpeting his achievements.

Jonathan Thurston easily better than 'Joey'.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Both Johns and Thurston are similar, probably rate Johns fractionally more as he has made poor sides win premierships. For all Thurston's praise last year, the Cowboys had a great roster

 

[Broar]

Both Johns and Thurston are similar, probably rate Johns fractionally more as he has made poor sides win premierships. For all Thurston's praise last year, the Cowboys had a great roster

People say this but those Knight sides were filled with star players as well O'Davis, Albert, MacDougall, MJohns, Harrogan, Gidley, Tahu, Buderus, Kennedy, etc.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

People say this but those Knight sides were filled with star players as well O'Davis, Albert, MacDougall, MJohns, Harrogan, Gidley, Tahu, Buderus, Kennedy, etc.

He won a premiership with the great Sean Rudder at 5/8! Need I say more!

 

[balmainforever]

thurston got gifted the churchill last year.

 

[Sydney Bloods]

anyone who thinks Thurston is better then joey is under 30 or a complete Muppet.

 

[Rhys Cooyou]

No.

Dally M's mean nothing.

Ewan McGrady says hi.

 

[Ronnie Baby]

Absolutely

 

[Lord Rod]

No.

Dally M's mean nothing.

Ewan McGrady says hi.

Ewan also won the Rothmans medal.. Decent first grader, but I get your point..

 

[Rhys Cooyou]

Ewan also won the Rothmans medal.. Decent first grader, but I get your point..

Back when Ewan won it, the Rothman's was the Dally M.

 

[Lord Rod]

Back when Ewan won it, the Rothman's was the Dally M.

In a sense it was, however..
The Rothmans medal was voted by the referees, whilst the Dally M is voted by the commentators. The Rothmans medal existed until 1997, Ewan won it in 91..

 

[Rhys Cooyou]

In a sense it was, however..
The Rothmans medal was voted by the referees, whilst the Dally M is voted by the commentators..

Semantics.

Rothman's Medal was for the best player in the game.

As the Dally M is now.

 

[Lord Rod]

Semantics.

Rothman's Medal was for the best player in the game.

As the Dally M is now.

Correct, however the voting was different..I don't disagree with you, I'm just putting it out there for people who may not know..

 

[Experimental]

100%

 

[Rack Watts]

He's better than Johns but Lockyer would be GOAT.

Haha

 

[DylanR]

He's better than Johns but Lockyer would be GOAT.

You must be trollin

 

[moto748]

I don't know about better than Johns (didn't see enough of him play), but JT is certainly the best player kicking around right now.

 

[mikey127]

JT is one of the best when it comes to having a sook.

 

[beauskies01]

Thurston may be a statistcly better player but in terms of domination over one single game of football no one has done it better than johns or lewis perhaps. Also joeys defence gets the nod over thurstons just like to add that.

 

[PhatBoy]

Thurston is the better halfback. Johns the better player IMO.

He didn't play there much but in his handful of games at hooker for NSW johns was outstanding, his defence and his directing of play was equal to that of a regular dummy half.

Thurston can't really help the defence thing, he is built a lot more slightly than Joey was, far less natural strength so he's never going to dish out tackles like Joey, but for his size he actually defends quite well. As a pure playmaker I don't think I've ever seen a better half than Thurston but yeah, loses out a bit to Joey's versatility.