Source :- THE AGE NEWS
At a recent Parramatta training session, Josh Addo-Carr hit the afterburners.
“I ran at 10.4 metres per second the other week,” Addo-Carr said.
“The GPS data doesn’t lie. The fastest I’ve done is 10.7. I don’t know how much that is in kilometres an hour, but that’s pretty quick, bro.”
It is pretty quick indeed. We did the maths, and Addo-Carr hit a top speed at that Eels session of 37.44 km/h. That’s starting to edge towards his best reading, as clocked by the Telstra Tracker on game day, of 38.7km/h.
To put that into further context, the best Telstra Tracker time of the 2024 season belonged to Manly’s Jason Saab, with a maximum speed of 37.7 km/h.
Which suggests that, at the age of 29 and five games into his Eels stint, Addo-Carr still possesses the blistering speed that had him affectionately dubbed “The fastest man on the planet.”
“You need to run fast to get fast and stay fast, but I feel like the last few years I didn’t give myself a chance because of how heavy I was,” he said.
“I’ve dropped about seven kilos. Last year I was about 97 kilos. I thought I was doing the right thing, but it sort of backfired on me because I wanted to be a powerful athlete.
Josh Addo-Carr is returning to his best with the Eels.Credit: Getty Images
“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.
Josh Addo-Carr celebrates scoring a try against his former club.Credit: Getty Images
“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.
Josh Addo-Carr launches launches his latest merchandise range.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
“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.
“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.
“It hasn’t been smooth sailing in my life, but those are the lessons I want to tell the kids.”
Michael Chammas and Andrew “Joey” Johns dissect the upcoming NRL round, plus the latest footy news, results and analysis. Sign up for the Sin Bin newsletter.
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