He is one of the most popular players in rugby league, both on and off the field, but ask Josh Addo-Carr about his growing influence in the game and the 28-year-old himself can still hardly believe it.
After all, the Bulldogs winger told foxsports.com.au on Wednesday night that “never in a million years” did he think he would play one first-grade game, let alone 172.
Or score 133 tries. Or represent his state and country, while establishing himself as one of the sport’s leading Aboriginal voices and role models.
Not just to the next generation either. Sharks halfback and former Storm teammate Nicho Hynes told NRL.comthis week of five simple yet powerful words from Addo-Carr back during his Melbourne days that helped him find his voice.
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“If you’re black, you’re black,” Addo-Carr said, according to Hynes.
For Addo-Carr, a proud Wiradjuri and Gunnggandji man, he had a similarly simple yet powerful response when asked to reflect on that moment in the AAMI Park locker room.
“I’ve always been myself everywhere I’ve gone and I just feel like that’s the first step,” he said.
“Being proud of myself and being proud of who I am and I’m very lucky to know where I’m from and I’m very lucky to have grown up in an Aboriginal and Indigenous family and community.
“I think for people that are still trying to find their identity, people that know that they’re Indigenous need to support those people that are still finding out their identity and not strong within culture.
“I feel like the people that are not strong with their identity are probably maybe a bit ashamed to be Aboriginal or don’t know the full bloodline of where they come from.
“I’ve just always tried to support the people that know that they’re Indigenous but don’t fully know their culture or where they’re from. Just being myself and that’s what people love really. Being proud of who I am and being proud of where I’ve come from.”
Being proud. Being myself. Being authentic. They were common themes from Addo-Carr as he spoke on Wednesday night to a group of young, aspiring Aboriginal rugby league players.
Those same players will be running out at Accor Stadium on Thursday before the Bulldogs and Dragons clash that kicks off the NRL’s Indigenous Round, competing in the third annual State of Origin game hosted by the Clontarf Foundation.
The Foundation, which was established in 2000, uses sports to assist young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men in improving their education, discipline, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects.
Thursday night’s State of Origin game sees the Foundation’s leading Indigenous NSW and Queensland rugby league talent face off, with the match kicking off at 3.30pm and available to watch on Kayo Freebies.
From the challenge of moving away from home and living off $200 a week early in his career in Melbourne to the importance of his mother Melissa’s support, Addo-Carr shared valuable advice with the young players, who hung on his every word — and trademark laugh.
Addo-Carr though got a lot out of the opportunity too, his face lighting up when he was asked what it is like to be a leading voice for young Indigenous athletes.
“I pinch myself every day that kids and adults and young adults look up to me every day,” Addo-Carr said.
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“Never in a million years did I think that I’d play one first grade game but I’m lucky to have played as many as I have right now. The journey I’ve had has had ups and downs through rugby league but I wouldn’t change an absolute thing.
“Rugby league has put me in a position where I can share my story with Indigenous kids that probably go through the same stuff that I went through when I was a kid.
“Some are blessed with mad support and childhoods and some aren’t blessed with that sort of stuff so it’s good to come out and share my story and share a bit of knowledge.”
Even now, entering his ninth year in the NRL, Addo-Carr said he is still “shocked” when people see him in public and are equally “shocked” that it is the Bulldogs flyer.
“It never really hit me that I got that big,” he said.
“I just feel like I’m a normal person to everyone else.”
Maybe that is because in everything Addo-Carr has done to this point in his career, he has lived by two simple principles.
“Wherever I’ve gone I’ve always been myself and I’ve always been respectful with the environment I’ve been a part of or been in,” Addo-Carr said.
“It’s taken me a long way being myself and being respectful along the way and that’s what people love. You can’t fake being real. That’s what I’ve always done.”
Addo-Carr is just one of many players across the NRL making a difference off the field.
With that in mind, foxsports.com.au is shining a light on the selfless acts across rugby league that often go unnoticed with a ‘Good Deeds’ column.
Here are some of the highlights that have been shared so far from the NRL community this month.
DCE MAKES YOUNG FAN’S DAY
The Sea Eagles posted on their X account earlier in the month about how Daly Cherry-Evans had surprised a young fan on his birthday.
The Manly skipper delivered a gift pack and plenty of smiles when he dropped in to visit Jack, who was diagnosed with stage IV cancer (Neuroblastoma) early last year.
Jack went through six months in hospital, eight rounds of chemotherapy, an eight-hour surgery, a bone marrow transplant, and 12 rounds of radiation, which has all but a few remaining cancerous cells in his bone marrow.
His mother Jaimee wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page that Jack “responded very well to treatment” and that it has “cleared all but a few remaining cancerous cells in his bone marrow”, with the next and final stage of treatment in Australia, immunotherapy, to last nearly six months in the hope of clearing the remaining cells.
Still, Neuroblastoma has a 50 per cent relapse rate and so even if that stage is successful it does not mean Jack and his family’s ordeal is over.
So, the final stage of Jack’s treatment is in America, with the family looking to travel to the US at least six times over the next two years to access two drugs that have been proven to reduce the risk of relapse.
These drugs won’t be available in Australia for at least two years, hence why the family is taking matters into their own hands, needing to raise $500,000 to to get Jack access to at least one of these drugs.
You can read more about Jack’s story on his GoFundMe page.
CURRAN COMES GOOD ON PROMISE
Elsewhere, Josh Curran is proving to be an excellent signing for the Bulldogs — both on and off the field.
X user @Andrewmacca27 shared a post from Bulldogs fan Dimitra Vlahos, who wrote on Facebook that on the first Tuesday of the school holidays in April she had taken her children down to a Bulldogs training session.
Vlahos wrote that her son told Curran at the session that no players had ever gave him anything after games and asked for the Bulldogs forward’s headgear.
Curran told her son to go to the Newcastle game, which the Bulldogs won 36-12, promising he would find him in the stands and hand over his headgear.
“After Josh finished doing his duties with the media, he came over to my son and handed him his headgear,” Vhalos wrote.
“My son and I were both speechless. Josh also signed the headgear.”
CLEARY’S SIMPLE ACT SAYS LOTS
Meanwhile, X user @TheShaunChand also posted about a simple but kind gesture from Panthers coach Ivan Cleary, who took time out of his time to talk to a fan and even offered them two tickets to Penrith’s next home game.
Source Agencies
