Thurston ready to go | Thebigtip

All the conspiracy rumours have been laid to rest and it now seems that finally sanity has prevailed.

 It would not be a State of Origin build up without high drama. The John Thurston vs Judiciary saga was drama instalment number one in the build up to Origin III. The decision to clear JT was clearly the right one and now, injury pending, we will get the two best teams across the park to go head to head.

The contact with officiators rule was brought into the National Rugby League this season  with the intention to limit player contact with referees.

Its a fair and reasonable enough attempt to reduce contact incidents but the rule clearly needs a little tweaking.

Even when contact is purely accidental, the player can still be punished by way of fining or even suspending through the charge of unintentional but reckless. If it can be proven that a player only has eyes for the ball or the player, it is not reckless, just merely accidental.

The referee is the one who should be answering questions about his position on the field. Referees are not entirely innocent here. If they impede a player or interfere with them in any way, it probably won't even get looked at and if it does, the worst a referee may cop is a week in the locals.
The officiator contact rule has been in the AFL system for some time and unfortunately a player has never successfully argued that the contact was purely accidental. Hopefully the AFL hierarchy can look at this case on its merits and understand that common sense can prevail if you let it.

Now we can look forward to the best 17 from both states going at it. I'm sure a NSW supporter would love to have seen Thurston in the stands and not on the field. it would give them a much better chance of clinching the series. But wouldn’t victory be much sweeter beating a full strength Qld. Time will tell if Blues supporters are happier saying "we came close but Thurston got you over the line", or "we only beat you because Thurston didn't play".

We will see!

Harvey Norman State of Origin III, July 6 Suncorp Stadium, QUEENSLAND V NEW SOUTH WALES