North Queensland halfback Johnathan Thurston has won rugby league's Golden Boot award for a record third time. Photo/File
North Queensland halfback Johnathan Thurston has won rugby league's Golden Boot award for a record third time.
The 32-year-old, who led the Cowboys to a first NRL grand final triumph and won the Dally M medal for a record fourth time, beat off competition from Kiwi Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and Leeds'
England fullback Zak Hardaker.
The Queensland and Australia halfback was the overwhelming choice of a 28-strong panel featuring writers and former winners of the award, which was first presented in 1984 and was also won by Thurston in 2011 and 2013.
"I'm still trying to come to terms with it," Thurston told Rugby League World, the British magazine which presents the award. "It's obviously been a big year on and off the field and to finish it off with the Golden Boot is very special. There're a lot of great players in both hemispheres and to be voted as the best is very humbling."
Hardaker, Super League's 2015 Man of Steel, lost out to Tuivasa-Sheck for the fullback spot in the prestigious World XIII, which was chosen by the same panel.
