Thurston turned down Packer deal

On the day of North Queensland’s NRL semi-final clash with the Roosters, the true extent of Johnathan Thurston’s loyalty to the Cowboys has been revealed.

The Cowboys skipper turned down a corporate deal with Crown casino owner James Packer, who was enlisted by Panthers general manager Phil Gould to try and help lure the superstar to Penrith when he came off contract last year, the Courier Mail reports.

The package put together by Packer – a Roosters supporter who had to put his club allegiances aside – included a post-NRL career at the new casino at Barangaroo in Sydney as an Aboriginal ambassador.

Packer has also vowed to build a $10 million community centre and training facility in Penrith.

The centre was to create 1250 jobs, many of which were aimed at Indigenious youth.

Thurston was said to be enthusiastic about the opportunity but rejected the Panthers’ offer when Packer was unable to meet him personally because of other business commitments.

“I have to hand it to the Cowboys, they were competing against a pretty strong corporate market in Sydney,”.

“Yes, we met with representatives of James Packer, Johnathan and I, and I won’t go into great detail,” Thurston’s manager, Sam Ayoub said.

“We had meetings with people aligned to James and had it gone any further, James would have met with Johnathan but at that stage we hadn’t entered into the ambassadorial role with the Barangaroo development.”

The news comes a day after Thurston’s Queensland coach Mal Meninga said the Cowboys champion had done enough to be a future Immortal regardless of whether he goes onto win another NRL premiership after his first title with the Bulldogs in 2004.

"I don't think it (him winning another title) should be part of the criteria at all ... when it comes to how good a player he is," said Meninga.

"One of the (Immortal) criteria is longevity and he has been at the pinnacle of the game for such a long period of time and he's still the best player in the competition."

Meninga was nominated along with Ron Coote and Norm Provan but lost out to Andrew Johns when the eighth Immortal was announced two years ago.