The inaugural Nines event at Eden Park next month is looming as a hit with the fans but it remains to be seen just how seriously the clubs will take it.
While the Cowboys made the finals last season and will be favoured to get their again in 2014, they will be heading into the new campaign with a rookie coach in Paul Green.
Green has had a threadbare squad to work with over the summer due to the World Cup, with the likes of Thurston, Matt Scott, James Tamou and Brent Tate only returning to training this week.
With the Nines tournament on the schedule for the first time, the Cowboys will play just one main trial game against the Gold Coast before their season opener.
"It (Nines tournament) will be great for the fans but it doesn't help the clubs," Thurston said on Friday.
"From our point of view with a new coach we would have preferred another trial.
"We've only got the one main trial (against the Titans) because of the Nines so it's a bit tougher on us as a club with a new coach.
"We're still working extremely hard with the systems Greeny's putting in place.
"It's all new to us we need to make sure we focus over the next two or three weeks to get that right."
It was Thurston who got most things right in 2013 and he was rewarded on Friday by taking out the Golden Boot as Rugby League's best player.
It's the second time the Test and Origin star has won the award – after his success in 2011 – joining Andrew Johns and Darren Lockyer as the only players to claim the prize twice.
"There's a lot of great players running around in the game today so to win the award is just a huge honour," Thurston told reporters.
"Just to have my name mentioned along with those two (Johns and Lockyer) is great.
"It probably won't sink in until the next few days but to have my name alongside Joey and Locky is pretty special.
"I've got to thank the boys for most of it. The Australian side is what they (judges) were looking at and playing alongside those boys makes my job easy.
"That forward pack we had throughout the competition were great and it's easy when you got the best hooker (Cameron Smith) to ever play the game."
Thurston said winning the Rugby League World Cup over New Zealand, after losing the final in 2008, was the highlight of his year just ahead of Queensland's remarkable eighth straight State of Origin series win.