Parramatta have emerged as one of the frontrunners to sign Josh Addo-Carr after the Bulldogs winger has declared he is not washed up and ready to silence his critics next year.
The 29-year-old former NSW and Australian winger is without a club and working part-time as a landscape gardener with former boxer Garth Wood after he was sacked by Canterbury with immediate effect on Thursday after failing a roadside drugs test last month.
“I’ve got a point to prove. I want to show people I’m not done,” Addo-Carr told The Courier-Mail.
“Bloody oath I will be in the NRL next year. The love for footy and my hunger for footy is still there.
“It’s disappointing the way things panned out, but I have to cop it on the chin and I need to go back to what’s always worked for me and that’s working hard. It’s a bit like what the Melbourne Storm did for me when I went down there to play for them.
“I’ve handled this pretty well. I’m keeping my mind busy and I’ve still got to put food on the table for my family and that’s what I plan to do. I know my time in the NRL will come again and when it does I will take it with both hands no matter where I go.”
The Eels have salary cap space and a roster spot following Fijian winger Maika Sivo’s switch to the Super League recently and incoming coach Jason Ryles has a rapport with Addo-Carr from their time together at the Storm when he was an assistant coach.
St George Illawarra were considered the favourites in the Foxx hunt but they are more concerned with signing Eels skipper Clint Gutherson to a three-year deal following Ben Hunt’s abrupt departure earlier in the week.
Gutherson’s arrival means fullback Tyrell Sloan will shift to the wing so the Dragons may have less of a need for Addo-Carr.
Josh Addo-Carr. (Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
Wests Tigers, where Addo-Carr started his NRL career, have also been mentioned as a possible landing spot for the Indigenous All Stars speedster but they have signed Panthers winger Sunia Turuva and Canterbury’s Jeral Skelton and also have Charlie Staines on the books for 2025.
Addo-Carr’s fate was sealed on Thursday when he was forced to front the Bulldogs board of directors and explain why he shouldn’t have his contract torn up after he was pulled over by NSW Police in September, a week out from the club’s first finals games in eight years.
The 15-time NSW State of Origin representative failed the roadside test and a secondary sample returned the same outcome.
Addo-Carr has maintained he had not knowingly ingested recreational drugs and had held faint hope he would be given a reprieve by Canterbury powerbrokers.
with AAP
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