Time to face facts, dust:Thurston is a good player who has won...

Time to face facts, dust:

Thurston is a good player who has won two Origin man of the match awards from 12 appearances. That puts him up there with the likes of Backo, Bella, Lindner, Larson, Lockyer, Brasher and Toovey, who each won two.

Hopefully Thurston will one day become only the seventh player to win three or more Origin Man of the Match awards, and he will be entitled to be regarded as one of the great players of the last 30 years. But he has not done it yet.

For the record, the six who are already there are:

Wally 8 from 31 appearances
Sterlo 4 (13)
Andrew Johns 4 (23)
Alfie 4 (34)
Stuart 3 (14)
Elias 3 (22)

Sterlo might have matched Wally if he had played more games. He is the only one that can be regarded as being in the same league as Wally.