They say behind every great man is an equally great woman – and the relationship between Johnathon Thurston and his wife Samantha is no exception.
The retiring rugby league superstar will go down as one of the greatest players to ever lace up the boots and will leave behind a record breaking legacy.
He also leaves behind a legacy as one of the most genuine, well liked and community minded leaders to play the game and his wife Samantha had a large part in building that legacy, The Courier Mail reported.
They say behind every great man is an equally great woman and the relationship between Johnathon Thurston and his wife Samantha is no exception (pictured together)
In 2007 Samantha Thurston, then Lynch, was the sponsorship manager for the North Queensland Cowboys and a friend of her future husband (pictured at 2015 Dally M Awards)
In 2007 Samantha Thurston, then Lynch, was the sponsorship manager for the North Queensland Cowboys and a friend of her future husband.
She sat him down one day and gave him advice that would help him become the great everyone will remember, she told him he needed a ‘legacy’.
She began that fateful conversation by telling him ‘you need to clean up your act’.
‘Long term you need a legacy, your character will be your legacy, that’s what people will remember,’ she told him in 2007.
‘It was always in him, he didn’t do it because I told him to, it was just at times he just needed direction.’
Samantha was the first person to greet her husband when he got to the locker room after his last home game in Townsville
Thurston would go on to win the 2015 NRL Grand Final and Samantha was right there to support him in his greatest professional moment
Thurston took the advice, clearly already valuing the insight of a woman he would fall in love with, marry and start a family, because it was that same year his engagement with sponsors and fans skyrocketed.
He then went on to become the face of products such as SKINS sports compression, ASICS, Toyota and head gear makers Madison, who created his now iconic head gears for him.
Creating a million dollar empire in the process.
Thurston is also one of the highest paid players in the game with a contract that was rumoured to be worth $1million per year.
Already proudly Indigenous, Thurston also engaged more heavily with the Indigenous community, taking on the leadership role so many already put him in.
Eventually being honoured with the Australian Human Rights Medal in 2017 for his dedicated work with the Indigenous community.
Mrs Thurston said becoming a dad was also the making of the man fans will farewell from the sport next week.
He will retiree with a record that few others are likely to reach.
Thurston will play his final game of NRL football on Saturday against the Titans on the Gold Coast
A four time Dally M Player of the Year, the most successive State of Origin Games (36) and a decade at the pinnacle of the sport for the Cowboys, Queensland and Australia.
He also brought the North Queensland Cowboys and the clubs fans their first ever premiership after winning the 2015 Grand Final.
Thurston will play his final game of NRL football on Saturday against the Titans on the Gold Coast.