I think this is a great comparism . While the cowboys results were poor , thurstons game rarely was. He led from the front, busted his gut , got put on his arse time and time again trying to create. In fact im pretty sure the nrl changed rules because of how heavily he was targetted.
With poor troops in the spine he was a champion. He wanted the ball when the game was on the line. He didnt shirk it ever
While dce was busy for some weeks near the end , when he had quality players like turbo and walker playing tough, he shirked it , plain and simple. Its why i said watch the earlier season games. Im pretty confident
While he ran around and was busy against poor quality opponents near the end of the season, he rarely took the ball in to the line, just sideways in what i think was self preservation.
Another thread asks why cameron smith never gets hurt, because of the game he plays. Cherry plays a similar style but without the effectiveness, calmness and skill that smith injects into a game/ result
Twice against the tigers he was hit hard and once against the titans. He resented that big time. It was memorable for me because i have watched for this for years.
His try assists used to come from sideways runs inside the opp 10 m line giving face balls to lane then sirro to crash over. Not this year and most of his assists came from the last 6 weeks
About mid season fox put stats up that since 2017 cherry had 2 more assists than ash taylor to that point over almost 3.5 seasons. Considering taylors long absences , lack of attacking spine players and stints in reggies its hardly the stuff of legends, let alone Thurston