We Deserve the spoon. Thurston

[thorson1987]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...n-spoon-thurston/story-e6frexnr-1225914215021

Cowboys deserve to ride off with wooden spoon - Thurston



ON the day Melbourne close the final chapter on the club's most tumultuous season, North Queensland skipper Johnathan Thurston concedes that the Cowboys - and not the Storm - deserve rugby league's most despised trophy, the wooden spoon.

Thurston made the frank admission in the same breath that he promised to lead his North Queensland team-mates back into finals contention next season.


Debate into who should claim this year's wooden spoon has raged since the NRL reduced salary cap cheats the Storm to zero points for the remainder of this season.


The Storm will cap a forgettable season in front of a sell-out crowd against Newcastle at AAMI Park today.


And most fans believe that they deserve the wooden spoon, despite accruing 13 wins this season.


But not Thurston. After managing just five wins this season to be no hope of finishing higher than 15th heading into last night's clash against the Roosters, he believes the Cowboys are the competition's real wooden spooners.


"On the table it says Melbourne," Thurston told The Sunday Telegraph.
"But probably in my heart, it's us.
"It's been a disappointing year as a club and our form and our results show that.


"We'll have a review at the end of the year and look to improve. We're all competitive in this industry, so it's frustrating and disappointing.
"But I'm really looking forward to 2011."


Asked where the Cowboys got it so wrong this year, the Test halfback did not shy away from the facts.


"Our decision making on the field hasn't been great," Thurston said. "And it's been right across the board. I've kicked out on the full, forward passes, knock ons - we've just put ourselves under the pump.


"I've spent a few weeks on the sideline this year. I've gone from club level to Origin and back. It's just one big roller-coaster, so it certainly has been my toughest year."


Still on crutches following ankle surgery, Thurston hopes to be fit for the end-of-season Four Nations tournament. But he won't place Australia's chances in jeopardy by playing when he's not fully fit.

 

[thorson1987]

Get lost JT, your not taking that off us.

But you can have this though.

 

[Charlie124]

I dont care if we got beaten by 60 every week and didnt win a single game this season, there is only 1 team that deserves the wooden spoon and thats the team who cheated the other 15 clubs for five years and stole premierships from the clubs who were playing by the rules.

 

[Doomednow]

Melbourne deserves worse than the spoon. They need a line through their team name for all the years they were found to be cheating. As far as the game is concerned they weren't competeing

 

[thorson1987]

I dont care if we got beaten by 60 every week and didnt win a single game this season, there is only 1 team that deserves the wooden spoon and thats the team who cheated the other 15 clubs for five years and stole premierships from the clubs who were playing by the rules.

Im not saying we dont deserve it. What the club has done to the game is inexcusable.

 

[Perth Red]

Makes you wonder how good Thurston really is considering how he continually fails to lift his team.

 

[God-King Dean]

IMO Thurston will never win a premiership (excluding 2004, & he was hardly pivotal to their team) just based on the amount of $$$ he commands. All good to have the best player, but he'll have less to work with than other halfbacks.

 

[Raiders_Premiers]

They have a very decent team next year. Anything but a top 8 spot will be a fail

 

[mrpwnd]

At least they don't need to deal with having Webb in their line-up anymore.
That's our problem now.

 

[sarahk]

Makes you wonder how good Thurston really is considering how he continually fails to lift his team.

While i agree that he needs to, to a certain degree, lift the team, i believe the onus is on the TEAM as a whole to step up . Look at our team. How many times has our strategy been ' pass it to Hayne and wait for him to pull some magic off'. It's not up to the one individual player to lift the team it is up to everyone to do it. I haven't watched all the Cowboys games but from what i've watched Thurston puts his heart in all the games he plays and the amount of times that guy has played injured says a lot about him and that imo should be enough to lift the team.

And it does make me wonder how good he really is, in fact it made me realise that i would give my RIGHT ARM to have him in my team.

 

[BDR]

Bloody oath we do, we have been far and away the worst team in the competition all year. One of the most bitterly disappointing seasons I've ever had to watch as a footy fan.

And Thurston always gives 100% to our team. Week in week out he tries his hardest, and although it doesn't always work you can never fault him on effort. Compare to overpaid nuffies that filled out our squad this year like Kaufusi, Manukafoa and Webb.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Thurston needs to find a new team before it is too late.

 

[pantherz9103]

Whoever comes last or not, shouldn't prevent a team who won only 5 games all season copping one helluva bagging. The Storm cheated yeah but that's a different matter. They get the spoon, but the Cowboys team has also been criminal in their lack of performance this season, especially with a roster with 8 or 9 rep players. They bought Neil Henry at since he went there they've only won 16 games and lost 32. Henry's record is a paltry 33.33%. Pretty poor from the 2008 coach of the year.

 

[BDR]

Signing Henry and sacking Murray was a huge mistake, there's no doubt about that. What happened was we originally sacked Muzz to raid Bennett from the Broncos but the News Ltd. influenced board shut it down (Bennett was completely ready to come). We then had to scramble to secure a top-shelf coach for the next season, and the only way we could do that was to offer Henry (who had significant past ties with the club and was at the time considered a fine coach) a lengthy, lucrative contract.

It was a miserable balls-up indicative of how poorly the club is run in general. There's been a huge clean-out over the last 2 years and the club has been sold to the Leagues Club so hopefully this bullsh*t is in the past. Because believe me, it's frustrating as all hell to watch as a fan.

 

[GongPanther]

Thurston should have another goonie and shut the f**k up.


That particular club cheated not only their fans but the fans and players of all clubs INCLUDING his.

And while we are at it,scrub the point scoring records of all the Storm players of the past few years.

 

[pantherz9103]

The fact that Melbourne cheated doesn't excuse the Cowboys from being bagged from pillar to post for impersonating a football team.

 

[Canard]

I reckon it was the worst season from an NRL team since Wests in the late 90's.

Luckily for Neil Henry high profile clubs like Souths and Canterbury have underperformed and helped the media ignore that fact.

 

[stormbati]

Wow! Alot of you guys have your teams in the finals and you're still crying about the Storm.

 

[Red Bear]

Cowboys just seem like a rotton club.

Up north where the sun ensures the reddest of necks, player power is rife. It was the players who got Murray sacked, the players who decided they wanted Henry, then the players (Thurston) who fell out with him quick smart when they didnt get their way. Wouldnt have a coach if it was up to them, just a puppet.

They badly need a coach who wont take any sh*t.

 

[MsStorm]

Wow! Alot of you guys have your teams in the finals and you're still crying about the Storm.

Good one.

There like a dog with a bone, they just won't let go.
Same old sh*t time after time, by the same posters.:lol: