SHORT PASS: Queensland State of Origin rugby league captain Cameron Smith says he is the greatest player to ever wear the maroon.

He is touted by many rugby league commentators as not only being the best player in the world at the moment, but potentially the best player to have ever played.

You only have to have a passing interest in rugby league to know Johnathon Thurston is already a legend of the game.

Humble and gracious as he is talented, the man is everything that is right with rugby league in the modern era.

He has steered home countless matches for the Cowboys and put his unique stamp on every level of the game.

I believe he is set to become rugby league's ninth immortal.

An honour reserved only for the most influential and ground breaking players, Thurston's heroics in Origin II, where he kicked the winning goal and sent Queensland to the decider which they subsequently won, have all but assured him a seat at the table.

Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis, Arthur Beetson and Andrew Johns are the current immortal inductees, and while Thurston still has a couple of years of play in him, I am calling for his induction to happen sooner rather than later.

After all, who else could possibly compare.

The rest is here:

JT's immortality a certainty after State of Origin heroics - Gympie Times