A heartbroken Johnathan Thurston has spoken publicly for the first time since the shock death of Paul Green.
The news of the former North Queensland Cowboys premiership winning coach’s death saw an outpouring of grief from the rugby league community.
On Monday night Thurston spoke about the pain and anger he’s feeling since the loss of his former coach and friend.
The two men combined in 2015 to lead the Cowboys to their first premiership.
Thurston was in the air, flying to Sydney for his commentary duties with Channel 9 when the shock news of Green’s death became public.
Thurston was given the weekend off and returned immediately to Townsville.
“Rollercoaster of emotions. It’s hard … I’m sad, I’m angry,” Thurston said on 9News through tears.
“I think of Amanda (Green’s wife) and the kids. It just breaks my heart.
“He was still like the rock for everyone else.
“He was saying, ‘Give me a call if you need to chat. You’ve got so much to live for. You’ve got health, family, kids’.
“So it just doesn’t make sense.”
Despite dealing with the pain of losing a great mate, Thurston is doing his best to remember all the good times he shared with Green.
“He’d get a few under his belt and start singing ‘Ice Ice Baby’,” Thurston said with a laugh.
“(That) was his go-to.
“He loved bringing people together.”
“As expected, there are moments where were a bit overwhelmed by the emotion of the sense of loss,” he said.
“Mum and dad are quite advanced in their age — dad’s over 90, mum’s over 80 — and they are obviously feeling the loss of their son. As brothers and sisters were feeling that loss but we are very conscious of Amanda’s (Green’s wife) loss as well and making sure she’s got that support.
“Everyone has their moments but we’ve had a big weekend of discussing various things, we think we have a path now so that certainly helped.”
News of a public memorial was released on Sunday which should be well attended judging by the emotional scenes across the weekend.
Speaking about the memorial, Rick said the event would take place at Kougari Oval and invited the public to come and celebrate the league great’s life.
