'Thurston easily top of the class'

Thurston ... is Mark Gasnier's player of the week. Source: Evan Morgan / News Limited

Former St George Illawarra superstar Mark Gasnier looks back on the first round of NRL action in 2013 and singles out his player of the week to be awarded The Gaz Man.

And the award, for his gallant performance in North Queensland's second round loss to Melbourne Storm, goes to...

JOHNATHAN THURSTON

I thought Johnathan Thurston was awesome in a losing side.

His ball playing ability was immense. He was up against one of the best teams in the comp, and the team with the best defensive structures in the comp, but he still had an impact.

His composure is amazing. He's the best player in the competition by a country mile at summing up situations. I think, you know, he's such a competitor.

Every time the Storm made a break he was the first man there in cover defence.

But the main thing that impressed me was the consistency he has in choosing the right man to hit when he ball-plays.

If it wasn't for Melbourne's amazing defence there would have been three or four tries and we might have had a different result.

And he has such good variation. He plays long, he plays short, he double pumps, he plays early, he plays late. There's that constant variety there and just that different depth from where he goes at the line.

That's what creates the indecision in defence.

In the end the Cowboys got soundly beaten but he was still able to cause headaches and that's got to be put down to his competitiveness. He's just an amazing little competitor. He shows up every week. That's what separates him - he's miles ahead at the moment, I believe.

Cooper Cronk's a great player at playing within a structure. Thurston doesn't have that same structure to work within so it's amazing that he's able to pinpoint what's in front of him and sum up the situation.

I've got a lot of admiration for Thurston but I still don't agree with Matthew Johns that he's poised to surpass Andrew Johns as the best half of all time.

Joey had a hell of a lot more competitors to compete against and came up to start with in a non-salary cap era and made a small club extremely competitive and won two premierships with them.

At this stage there's no comparison.

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