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March 27, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Josh Addo-Carr is standing at a petrol bowser about five metres away, filling up his big black car with ridiculously expensive diesel.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 7.30pm on Sunday, less than two hours after Parramatta\u2019s gritty 30-20 win over St George Illawarra<\/a> \u2014 sealed by a 70-metre Addo-Carr special after he burned Dragons halfback Daniel Atkinson on the outside.<\/p>\n Addo-Carr\u2019s father and younger sister are there, too, having watched the 30-year-old light it up in his second game of season two for the Eels.<\/p>\n Three days later, he\u2019s at a sponsor\u2019s event in Sydney promoting \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 his latest car: a customised JAC ute he designed himself.<\/p>\n \u201cThat petrol cost me $210, brah,\u201d Addo-Carr says. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty wild at the moment. I drove past a servo where I grew up and I remember petrol being 99 cents back in the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Seizing on the obvious analogy, how full is his tank right now?<\/p>\n \u201cI think just under a full tank,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n When told the question was intended in a football sense, the speedster bursts out laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry, brah. I reckon I\u2019ve got four or five years left in me,\u201d he says. \u201cMy body\u2019s feeling amazing at the moment. I\u2019m doing everything I can to play consistent football. There\u2019s no limit.\u201d<\/p>\n Addo-Carr will line up in Saturday\u2019s \u201cBattle of the West\u201d against Penrith at CommBank Stadium as one of the top 10 try-scorers in Australian rugby league history, having leapfrogged the career tallies of Matt Sing and Hazem El Masri on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The \u201cFoxx\u201d now has 160 tries from 203 appearances across his decade in first grade, with his most prolific seasons coming during his first and last years at Melbourne, in 2017 and 2021, when he crossed 23 times in each.<\/p>\n Addo-Carr writes down his goals in the notes app on his phone. He produced a length-of-the-field try in his 200th NRL game last season against the Warriors, but now has his sights set on a new milestone: 200 career tries.<\/p>\n And while it remains an outside chance, he isn\u2019t ruling out a crack at Alex Johnston\u2019s record.<\/p>\n \u201cI love scoring tries and I\u2019m not gonna hide from that. That\u2019s what I get paid to do,\u201d Addo-Carr says. \u201cIf it [breaking Johnston\u2019s record] comes around, I\u2019ll be happy as, and I know my family will be happy. It\u2019d put a smile on their face.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still plenty of years left in me and hopefully, I can get 200 plus. It blows me away to be alongside some of the greatest players to ever play the game [on that list].\u201d<\/p>\n Addo-Carr is 195 days younger than Johnston and trails him by 54 tries. He would likely need five standout seasons and a lean patch from Johnston at South Sydney \u2013 or potentially Papua New Guinea from 2028<\/a> \u2013 to have any hope of climbing to the top.<\/p>\n The speed is still there, at least. GPS data from Sunday\u2019s match revealed Addo-Carr reached about 90 per cent of his top speed during that runaway try.<\/p>\n It\u2019s times like these when Addo-Carr feels lucky to be playing footy, having done it the hard way after spending the first few years of his life in Doonside, a suburb neighbouring Mount Druitt wedged between Penrith and Parramatta.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n After kicking off his league journey as a three-year-old at the Doonside Roos, Addo-Carr then moved to Earlwood Saints and ended up at Matraville Sports High School \u2013 because it was the only place that would accept him.<\/p>\n Through under-age stints at the Rabbitohs, Brisbane, Cronulla and then a first-grade debut at Wests Tigers in 2016, Addo-Carr carved out a stellar career with Melbourne and Canterbury before Jason Ryles threw him a lifeline at Parramatta.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cWho would have thought? A young Aboriginal fella who grew up in housing commission who didn\u2019t have the best childhood and had a single mum. I probably was never meant to make first grade, but just dug deep \u2013 there was lots of sacrifice and dedication.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what you want to do when you\u2019re a young fella, especially when you come through first grade.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always special to have family down there and come watch you. Dad\u2019s getting older and it\u2019s about trying to make as many memories as possible. He didn\u2019t come to too many games when I first started, but now he\u2019s coming to start and enjoy life a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether Addo-Carr passes Johnston or not, he understands the significance of two Indigenous footballers being so visible.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re inspiring one Aboriginal kid out there or one TI [Torres Straight Islander] kid, then we\u2019re doing our job,\u201d Addo-Carr says. \u201cReach for the stars because that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article The Eels are two from two with Addo-Carr in the side this year after their season opener against Melbourne ended in a 52-4 flogging<\/a>. He was nursing a broken thumb.<\/p>\n Parramatta will need something special from Addo-Carr and his mates in the Eels back line if they are to knock off the Panthers, particularly after the premiership favourites thumped the Roosters 40-4 last week.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve definitely been one of the benchmarks of the past seven or eight years,\u201d Addo-Carr says. \u201cThe battle of the west is always healthy competition. I absolutely love going head to head with those boys. They\u2019re a team that don\u2019t give you much. You\u2019ve got to take the opportunities when they come.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Eels](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/16990aeb563a82b432832f5c578d68129bd208fa.jpeg\")
Eels star Josh Addo-Carr. Sam Mooy<\/p>\n![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e5ebbbf833098958128258644a3d85c6f259d6eb.jpeg\")
Josh Addo-Carr in action against the Dragons. Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"All](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2d7877658ffe5974412377e1fd0cad90cd866ca4.jpeg\")
All smiles: Josh Addo-Carr at Erskineville Oval in the off-season.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n![\"NRL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/114d3afb88ef37d4867b8226293a3533759b637f.jpeg\")
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Tom Decent<\/a> is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 27, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-566192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}