Johnathan Thurston will become only the fourth player to reach 200 NRL matches for the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys when he lines up against the Sydney Roosters at 1300SMILES Stadium on Saturday night.
The two-time Dally M Medal will join former teammates Matthew Bowen (270), Aaron Payne (219) and Paul Bowman (203) in the Cowboys’ 200-game club and will now be eligible to become North Queensland’s fifth life member.
Thurston’s debut for the Cowboys came in round one of the 2005 season and he has been captain or co-captain since 2008.
His time at the club has included five finals series appearances and two Golden Boot awards as international player of the year.
Coach Paul Green today named an 18-man squad to face the reigning premiers with Antonio Winterstein, Ray Thompson and Tariq Sims returning from injury.
Winterstein replaces Curtis Rona, who has an ankle injury, on the left wing, while Thompson takes back the No.7 jersey from Robert Lui, who will head back to the Intrust Super Cup with the Northern Pride.
Sims has been named at lock with Scott Bolton returning to the interchange bench after starting in Friday night’s 27-14 victory against Brisbane.
Cameron King has retained the back-up dummy-half duties following his club debut in round nine.
North Queensland Toyota Cowboys v Sydney Roosters
Round 10, 2014 Telstra Premiership
7.30pm, Saturday 17 May, 1300SMILES Stadium
1 Michael Morgan
2 Matthew Wright
3 Brent Tate
4 Kane Linnett
5 Antonio Winterstein
6 Johnathan Thurston (c)
7 Ray Thompson
8 Matt Scott (c)
9 Rory Kostjasyn
10 James Tamou
11 Gavin Cooper
12 Jason Taumalolo
13 Tariq Sims
Interchange:
14 Cameron King
15 Ethan Lowe
16 Ashton Sims
17 Scott Bolton
18 Glenn Hall
Coach: Paul Green.
