{"id":245977,"date":"2022-10-21T23:10:28","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T23:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=245977"},"modified":"2022-10-22T20:00:21","modified_gmt":"2022-10-22T20:00:21","slug":"coles-butcher-job-on-jts-mind-as-huge-honour-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=245977","title":{"rendered":"Coles butcher job on JT's mind as 'huge honour' awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Johnathan Thurston<\/a> suits up to be inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, the rugby league legend will cast his mind back to working at Coles as a butcher.<\/p>\n

He also washed cars at Pickles Auctions and picked up a hospitality traineeship with Novotel\ufeff \u2014 a smattering of jobs that gave him money to live off during his no-pay contract with the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Canterbury gave the rising playmaker a shot when no other club was interested.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Thurston was too small\ufeff, too fragile and a liability in defence \u2014 or so his detractors thought.<\/p>\n

After finally scoring a paid deal with the Bulldogs and helping them to NRL premiership glory as a bench player, the Cowboys came knocking with a much more handsome pay slip.<\/p>\n

The player he became over the 14 years that followed \ufeffwould set him up for rugby league Immortality.<\/p>\n

Thurston's incredible career will be recognised when he and five others, including 2012 Olympic gold medallist Sally Pearson, are inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame next month.<\/p>\n

"My goal was always to play in the NRL and if I had to wash a thousand cars to do that, I would do that\ufeff," Thurston told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"If I had to stack all the shelves in the Coles, I would do that, because that was my way to getting into the NRL.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I was a porter (at Novotel) so I was the first person people would see when they arrived at the hotel, so I took that seriously and wanted to make it a good experience for them arriving at the hotel. If I had to collect a thousand bags I would have, because that was my dream, playing in the NRL, and that was part of the journey."<\/p>\n

So swift was Thurston's rise from Bulldogs bench player to Cowboys superstar that, in his first season up north, he clinched the 2005 Dally M Medal and steered his new club to the NRL grand final.\ufeff<\/p>\n

By the time the end of the 2018 season rolled around, when he removed his boots and headgear for the final time, he'd won two NRL titles, captured four Dally M Medals, claimed a Clive Churchill Medal, lifted the State of Origin shield 11 times and conquered a Rugby League World Cup.<\/p>\n

"Every athlete has challenges and setbacks, but there's a determination in the athletes that continue to soldier on," Thurston said as he reflected on the struggles at the start of his career.<\/p>\n

"They're one-minded and they just want to achieve that goal of what they want to achieve in their sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Those days when I was younger \u2014 they just made me more determined … to achieve my goal of playing in the NRL. I worked extremely hard, made a lot of sacrifices. I had to go the long way about it\ufeff … those jobs that I did \u2014 that was part of the journey."<\/p>\n

Thurston will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at an event at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on November 24.<\/p>\n

"It's a huge honour," the champion halfback said.<\/p>\n

"When you play a team sport\ufeff it's all about the team.<\/p>\n

"There's individual accolades that you get.<\/p>\n

"You don't go out there for those personal accolades, but it's nice to be standing up on the stage with the five other Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

"Once it happens it'll probably finally sink in.<\/p>\n

"When they rang me and let me know that I was getting inducted I had a big smile on my face and reflected on my career and all the achievements that I achieved."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Johnathan Thurston suits up to be inducted into the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame, the rugby league legend will cast his mind back to […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245977"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245979,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245977\/revisions\/245979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}