Cronk drew first blood for the Storm when he brushed past Thurston and Lachlan Coote in the 10th minute from close to the Cowboys’ try line.
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But within four minutes, Thurston hit back when he put a flawless kick through for centre Justin O’Neill to pounce on for an easy try.
Referee Matt Cecchin marched Koroibete for ten minutes in the bin and on his absence Morgan scored his second try in quick succession to provide the Cowboys with a handy buffer.
A battle-hardened Melbourne Storm side stands in the way of the Cowboys and a first all-Queensland NRL grand final next week.
In an entertaining opening half, Melbourne then surged ahead when Tohu Harris crashed over on the Storm right side.
If Thurston did attend Monday night’s awards, he would have to make a five-hour return trip.
“It could have been a lot worse circumstances if they hadn’t got to hospital when they did and I’m sure the NRL will investigate this and make sure we can educate our players correctly”.
Thurston finished Saturday’s match on the sidelines with a leg injury but declared himself a certain starter in the October 4 grand final against Brisbane, in what will be the first all-Queensland decider.
“When people start knocking your team or your team’s ability, I think you take a bit of offence to that”.
“When you play away, the flight’s very hard on the body”.
Bromwich said he was comfortable with letting Scott hold onto the best prop in the game tag.
Tate, who played 23 games for Queensland and 26 for Australia, many alongside Thurston, said he agreed with increasing talk the Cowboys playmaker could take over Wally Lewis’s mantle as Queensland’s best player. Billy got hurt and we were written off.
“The Dally M’s is the premier awards night in our game and we will ensure the Cowboys are part of it”, the spokesman said.
Some NRL commentators have claimed players are abusing pharmaceutical drugs but Bellamy said he hadn’t seen or heard that in Melbourne.
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CHAMPION Cowboys halfback Johnathan Thurston is the odds-on favourite to win a record fourth Dally M Medal tonight – only problem is, he probably won’t be there.
