By Wayne Heming

FOG#148 Johnathan Thurston has joined such rugby league luminaries as Dally Messenger, Clive Churchill and fellow Queensland legends Arthur Beetson, Wally Lewis, Allan Langer, Mal Meninga and Darren Lockyer in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

Thurston joins sporting icons such as the first male and female inductees in 1985, cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman and swimmer, Dawn Fraser.

He is just the 24^th rugby league player spanning 115 years to be afforded one of the country’s highest sporting honours.

The 40-year-old Brisbane-born indigenous Australian played 37 games for Queensland – including 36 straight – and all 24 of the Maroons record eight-straight series victories against the Blues between 2006-2013.

He holds the record for points scored for Queensland (220) and totalled 382 points in 38 games for Australia.

Thurston won premierships with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2004 and with a memorable field goal which steered North Queensland to their maiden title in an epic grand final against Brisbane in 2015.

All up he played 323 NRL games, 294 of them for the Cowboys.

His tireless work within the Aboriginal community has also been widely recognised and acknowledged through his own indigenous academies and other various charities which he supports.

 “To be recognised along with some of the greats of our sport like Cathy Freeman, Nova Peris, The Don and Dawn Fraser is a huge honour, Thurston told Channel 9’s Today Show.

“I played with some of the best. I was very blessed to have the career that I had.

“It’s a huge honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

Thurston found it difficult to split his 2015 grand final-winning field goal in extra time and his involvement in every game during Queensland’s eight-straight series streak and his most cherished memory as a player.

“I’d have to say the 2015 grand final was my greatest memory on the footy field.

“To be co-captain of the Cowboys with one of my best mates, Matt Scott, was probably number one, closely followed by the eight-in-a-row.”

When Thurston struck the winning field goal to sink Brisbane, legendary commentator Ray Warren screamed into his microphone: “he’s got the field goal; he’s gone from a captain to a legend”.

“I grew up listening to Rabs (Warren) call grand finals and the big matches,” said Thurston who is now part of Channel 9’s rugby league commentary team.

“That he named that as his number one moment in his documentary blew my mind. He has done it all, rugby league all sports, Olympics, horse racing.

“To be recognised as his favourite memory is huge and very humbling.