Broncos' coach Anthony Griffin rules out signing Johnathan Thurston in 2014 North Queensland captain Johnathan Thurston will not be signing for the Broncos when his Cowboys contract ends next year. Ben Barba is excited by the prospect of having Johnathan Thurston as a teammate at the Bulldogs from 2014 after the Australia five-eighth toured their Belmore training facilities. Kangaroos star Johnathan Thurston could be on his way back to the Bulldogs, after meeting with coach Des Hasler under the cover of darkness. THE Cowboys have moved a step closer to securing Johnathan Thurston after Broncos coach Anthony Griffin last night officially ruled out signing the Queensland Origin star. North Queensland officials privately viewed their derby rivals as the greatest impediment to retaining Thurston, with the Broncos rumoured to be making a multi-million dollar play for the Test playmaker. As revealed by The Courier-Mail, the Thurston camp met with Broncos operations chief Andrew Gee last month, fuelling speculation the 29-year-old was seriously considering finishing his NRL career at Red Hill. But Thurston will not be joining the Broncos in 2014. In the club's most definitive stance yet on the battle for Thurston's signature, Griffin said the Broncos had terminated talks after one meeting and is keeping the faith in halves triumvirate Peter Wallace, Corey Norman and Scott Prince, who was a shock departure from the Titans last month. "No, we won't be signing him," Griffin told The Courier-Mail. Our CEO Paul White feels the same way and I'm happy with our roster. The addition of Scott Prince (for 2013 and 2014) has been a bonus, so we're moving forward with the personnel that we've got. JT is a wonderful player but we've never made him an offer and we haven't even got to that point. Andrew Gee had one meeting with his manager and JT on their request and nothing came of it. We meet with player managers all the time. Johnathan's manager asked us to a meeting - he said JT is coming off-contract - to see if there was any interest. We had a meeting and there was no interest after that. While a raft of Sydney rivals remain interested in Thurston, headlined by the Bulldogs, it is understood the two-time Dally M Medallist is reluctant to leave behind family and friends in Queensland. Cowboys coach Neil Henry said the club remains confident it can retain Thurston, despite fellow stars Matt Bowen, Brent Tate, Matt Scott and James Tamou also coming off-contract next season. "It's true we have a few guys off-contract here and we're rolling through the process of making offers," Henry said. Johnathan has played his best football at this club. He has a strong connection to this region, his parents are settled here and his fiancee is settled here. It all points towards him staying in North Queensland, but clubs will put their hand up and want to talk to him and Johnathan is well within his rights to do that. Griffin said he was not concerned by off-contract stars being linked with the club by virtue of the Broncos' status as one of the NRL's heavyweight outfits. "We weren't in the market for Scott Prince, he came to us under extraordinary circumstances and we thought it was too good an opportunity to walk past," he said.