cliffy Lyons or Thurston?

[Clay]

Cliffy cos of the moustache

 

[globaleagle]

cliffy - cos he did all he did whilst being a smoker!

 

[Volley]

Cliff Lyons is, and always will be, the rugby league god, case closed

On Thurston, great competitor and player, but I just can't see how he gets rated as the best of all time, especially considering the people that said it have seen Johns as well

So true, Johns leaves Thurston for dead. Thurston is probably better at diving on a loose ball. Johns has him covered in all other facets.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

On Thurston, great competitor and player, but I just can't see how he gets rated as the best of all time, especially considering the people that said it have seen Johns as well

Short memory, must have a (oooh) short memory.
Media drives most of these opinions and the media have a clear vested interest in persuading their audience that they might be watching the greatest of all time.
(In saying that, I was impressed with Thurston's touches this weekend!)

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

So true, Johns leaves Thurston for dead. Thurston is probably better at diving on a loose ball. Johns has him covered in all other facets.

Spot on

Can watch Thurston play and say wow, that is a great effort.
Watch Johns play and you were saying how the **** did he just do that, especially with the banana kicks etc that nobody had produced before

A knights season in the mid 2000s sums it up, can't remember the exact figures but Joey was out and they lost 13-14 games on the trot and running dead last, he came back from injury and they won 7-8 of their last 10

 

[Dan]

Thurston has made it at every level that's the big difference.

Cliffs was great especially at club level but he didn't quite kick in at origin or even at Australian level though he did a lot better at international.

Thurston love him or hate him is a cracking player

 

[brad]

Hard to compare era's, but lyons back in his day could play in a dinner suit as Thurston could a year or 6 ago . Great players from different era's but cliffy for me ( bias ) . cliff played in an era we're there were great halves combos and he out shone most . Manlys attack centred around this man they called the magician for a reason. Ive got so much footage of this freak and still marvel at how good he was .

 

[double hoops]

These immortal name tags are just a wank popularity contest.

Lyons in his prime just has no equal.

 

[double hoops]

Case in point.
Thurston has a show n go. LOL A single one LOL.

There isn't enough phrases in existence to label all of Nappers slight of hand.

Just a genius.

 

[sheridanstand78]

I think that JT has been the best 5/8 from the last 20 years or so. He has matured into a wonderful player and improved his temperament that was at times suspect when he was a younger player. I think comparing the two is hard. Thurston has more origins and Australian caps than cliffy. Cliffy had an amazing ability to put a guy through a hole with a deft pass. Thurston has a brilliant kicking game. Both players are unchallenged when it comes to reading the game. Both amazing playes but the best 5/8 I ever saw was Wally Lewis.

 

[Pittwater Legend]

Spot on

Can watch Thurston play and say wow, that is a great effort.
Watch Johns play and you were saying how the **** did he just do that, especially with the banana kicks etc that nobody had produced before

A knights season in the mid 2000s sums it up, can't remember the exact figures but Joey was out and they lost 13-14 games on the trot and running dead last, he came back from injury and they won 7-8 of their last 10

Yep I remember that season well. It was 2005 I believe. To top it off, Johns came very close to winning the Dally M medal despite the Knights finishing last and Johns having missed plenty of matches. I believe that was also the season where Johns made a comeback to SOO in game 2 and sunk Queensland after they had gone 1 up in the first match. NSW went on to win it in match 3. It was a cracking season in his twilight years.

 

[bigswifty]

One thing that Thurston is just amazing for is driving a bunch of respectable/average first graders to perform above where their abilities apparently lie. Seeing him live the first time was a revelation. He played his own team (and even partly the opposition) like chess pieces. He uses each attacking resource according to and to the limit of their abilities, even adjusting on the fly as he senses a teammate struggling or coming on strong. For getting the absolute most out of a team of fairly average attacking players I've never seen anything to rival him.

 

[Lyonstomenzies]

Andrew Johns

 

[bob dylan]

I seen Lyons carve up the Junee Diesels at Willow Park one day. He was mesmerizing then.

Thuston has never done that.

 

[Ned]

None of them can hold a candle to Choc Mundine.

Signed
Choc Mundine

 

[MadMarcus]

None of them can hold a candle to Choc Mundine.

Signed
Choc Mundine

Yeah but Mundine will never be properly recognised like JT and Cliffy because he's Aboriginal and the game is racist.

Oh, wait...

 

[Class of 96]

Cliffy for mine. My reasoning is that JT is a superb footballer and is great in an arm wrestle, but not so sure when his teams are in serious trouble. Whereas with Cliffy, we would look cooked in games but whenever he was on the park, you just knew he could get us home from impossible situations. Case in point the semi against the Sharks in 95 when we were in trouble and he tore them to shreds in the 2nd half.

Also, Cliffy didn't need headgear.

 

[maxta]

Cliffy for mine. My reasoning is that JT is a superb footballer and is great in an arm wrestle, but not so sure when his teams are in serious trouble. Whereas with Cliffy, we would look cooked in games but whenever he was on the park, you just knew he could get us home from impossible situations. Case in point the semi against the Sharks in 96 when we were in trouble and he tore them to shreds in the 2nd half.

Also, Cliffy didn't need headgear.

Think he snagged an intercept from that hooker Aaron Raper?
Remember he won that when all looked lost - and plenty of others....for pure unstructured footy genius, I think Lyons puts the sword through them all.

 

[pjayz]

Cliffy - most natural footballer. He was magic to watch.

 

[HoldenV8]

Thurston has made it at every level that's the big difference.

Cliffs was great especially at club level but he didn't quite kick in at origin or even at Australian level though he did a lot better at international.

Thurston love him or hate him is a cracking player

Cliffy did do well in the limited opportunities he got at test level and he did manage to play 6 tests, 4 of them on the 1990 Kangaroo tour.

In a way in test football, Cliffy was in the same situation as Ricky Stuart. When Bozo was the teams sole selector on an overseas tour, they were his go-to halves, yet back home the selectors always chose others (Daley, Langer etc) no matter how well they played.

At Origin level during the late 1980's and into the early 90's, NSW were generally in a rebuilding phase and Cliffy suffered from that, especially due to the emergence of Laurie Daley and Brad Fittler who were both 10 years younger than him. He also suffered because at times the NSW selectors showed little faith in him. If they lost he was usually among the first to be dropped (or if he wasn't dropped it was rumoured that he would be) even if he had played well. He even got dropped after NSW won the 2nd game in Sydney in 1991. That was his last Origin game.