Convicted killer steered winger on correct course
JOSH Addo- Carr has revealed the role convicted killer and former NRL halfback Craig Field played in helping him get to within 80 minutes of a premiership dream.
Addo- Carr has emerged as one of the buys of the season for Melbourne, racking up 26 tries in 21 games on the left wing.
His last premiership was in 2013 when Addo- Carr took a year out from junior representative football to run around with his mates and cousins for Moore Park in the South Sydney A- grade competition.
Field, the former South Sydney, Manly and Wests Tigers halfback, was captaincoach at the time but also on trial for murder.
He would later be convicted of manslaughter for the deadly 2012 attack on a patron outside a pub in Kingscliff. Addo- Carr had nothing but praise for Field, who is not due for parole until 2021, and credited that season with Moore Park as helping him rediscover his love for the game.
“I was shattered I was dropped by Souths and didn’t know where I was going from there,’’ Addo- Carr said.
“My best mates and cousins told me to come and play with them for a year to ‘ get the love of the game back’ and that’s what happened.
“Craig was captain- coach and a really good bloke. He taught me a lot, so did all my cousins and family. He ( Field) taught me to be competitive and enjoy my football.”
Addo- Carr, 22, was picked up by Cronulla after his winter in park football, spent two seasons in the shire before being approached by the Storm, only to accept a one- year deal with the Wests Tigers. During his brief stint with the Tigers, Addo- Carr used to cover his face with his hand when he scored a try as an ode to his family members behind bars.
But on day one of pre- season training with Melbourne last summer, coach Craig Bellamy sat Addo- Carr down, showed him footage of his try celebrations and told him it had to stop because “it isn’t the Storm way’’.