Why Josh Addo-Carr is in a hurry – on and off the field
'I've come to terms with the fact that I'm just built the way I'm meant to be built – I'm slim, I'm not meant to be a bodybuilder. I thought I was just doing the right thing at the time, trying to get more powerful, but that's probably why I did my hammy so bad last year.
'It was the longest I've ever been out, nine weeks. But now I feel so much better, so much smoother in my running.'
Addo-Carr has shown that he's pretty quick between the ears as well. With the Easter Monday game against Wests Tigers on a knife edge, the premiership-winning winger came up with a defensive play that clinched the game.
On the wrong end of a two-on-one overlap – Sunia Turuva had the football with Jahream Bula looming in support – Addo-Carr read the play and intercepted Turuva's pass.
'I've seen the body language of Turuva – he had his eyes locked on Jahream Bula – and I just read his body language, knew that he was going to pass the ball and all I had to do was just time it and the rest is history,' he said.
'At the time I thought there were more Parra jerseys in the frame. It was a do-or-die moment, looking back at the replay and I just backed my instinct.'
It's the sort of big-time play that, particularly with incumbent NSW wingers Zac Lomax and Brian To'o on the sidelines, has him hopeful of a recall to the State of Origin arena.
'I'd love to do it again,' Addo-Carr said at ShoeGrab in Bankstown on Wednesday afternoon, where he personally delivered his latest range of 'Lets Trot' apparel.
'The love I have for that game – the players that have played Origin know how much it means to us.
'The hate between each state, it's real. When you're in it, it's mad, I love it. To play with the best players in the world, I'd love to get that opportunity again. I just need to keep focusing on what I need to do for the Eels and keep improving every day, which I am trying to do.
'And I'd love to put that Kangaroos jersey on again, 100 per cent. I definitely do miss representative football.'
Addo-Carr's switch from Canterbury to arch-rivals Parramatta appears to be a win for all parties. In five games in blue and gold, the former Storm star has scored five tries. The move was made possible due to the faith shown in him by coach Jason Ryles, who worked with Addo-Carr in Melbourne.
Addo-Carr's three-year stint at Canterbury came to a controversial end when the Bulldogs ripped up his contract in September. The premiership-winning winger had a year remaining on his $500,000-a-season deal.
'Rylesy was the only person who backed me, so I told him I wouldn't let him down,' Addo-Carr said. 'I'd love to [finish my career at Parramatta], to be honest with you. I love Parra.'
Having got his NRL career back on track, Addo-Carr has a burgeoning one off it. His merchandise range earned him the NRL's entrepreneur of the year award in 2023, and he has now added the Lets Trot show, a platform for other high-profile figures to share their stories. There's also Ndigi hire, an Indigenous labour hire company.
The latest venture is the launch of the JAC Academy, a charitable foundation to assist Indigenous youth.
'It's something I definitely didn't have growing up – I had a tough upbringing,' he said. 'I want to build a legacy by helping people. It's based on Indigenous kids, education, cultural awareness, footy programs, mental health, all that kind of stuff.
'It's about telling my story, how I overcame a lot of things in my childhood and through my playing career.
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'There's a lot of things that have happened in my life: obviously growing up in housing commission, having a single mother, dad was always away for work, mum did her very best to support me and my sisters and brothers.
'I grew up with nothing, like most NRL players, and I just want to be the very best version of myself.
'There's a saying that Craig Bellamy always used to say: if you're gonna spend so much time doing something, why don't you be the best at it?
'I've always had that in the back of my head. It's not the setback, it's always the comeback, that's the message.
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