But Thurston is so involved, so competitive, so energetic, so skilled, that he might be blasting his way past those two. The game seems to go at a million miles an hour when he's on and around the ball. And man, he hates to lose.
Conversely, there has been too much of a defeatist attitude at Warriors HQ as if the season was over. It is, but that's for us to say.
But when you put the pieces together, they have plenty to look forward to next year. For the first time the club will have one of the finest dummy half runners in the game when Issac Luke arrives. In Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, they have a brilliant stepping fullback whose work rate for the Roosters is almost revolutionising the position. With Shaun Johnson in the halves, that gives the Warriors three of the game's best players in the key positions. The Warriors still have a decent set of forwards led by two of the best props in Ben Matulino and Jacob Lillyman.
The major issue is the centres, and the size of that problem should not be underestimated. Rookie Solomone Kata's defence gets exposed. The much vaunted Konrad Hurrell can't get his career on track. There is a lot of optimism about 2016, but this Achilles heel could easily bring them down yet again.
But those problems are minuscule compared to what the Blues face. Tana Umaga could turn out to be an inspired coach - he is a man of immense character who has dedicated himself to learning the coaching craft from the ground up. But he is a Super newcomer with unproven assistants, including the All Blacks analyst, for goodness sake. Umaga needs a damn good mentor, quite frankly, but blokes like Wayne Smith are in short supply.
Having gone into the 2015 season facing two strong New Zealand franchises, the Blues finished the year facing four of them. Under New Zealand rugby's central contract system, Auckland is powerless to use its financial might to leap frog over the problems.
Yes, rampant Rene Ranger is back in town. But the Blues' emerging star, the runaway train Akira Ioane, has been whisked away by the national sevens coach. They lack world-class halves. Their pivotal player and captain Jerome Kaino has too many miles on the clock and will have even more after the World Cup, which will delay his return as Umaga takes over.
The Blues have become a halfway house for disaffected players and even coaches and assistants come and go at an alarming rate. Their ability to let future superstars like Aaron Smith, Waisake Naholo and Malakai Fekitoa slip through the fingers is legendary. Team culture is fragile. Leading lights turn them down. The best players, young and old, prefer to be elsewhere.
The bottom line: as bad as this season has turned out to be for the Warriors, the national sport continues to leave an inviting gap in New Zealand's biggest market. At least the Warriors have the power to do something about their problems. The Blues, once the envy of world rugby, are beggars living on scraps.
