NRL 2020: Wests Tigers clear to snare Josh Addo-Carr as Canterbury pull plug on chase
With incoming Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett loath to add to his long-list of outside backs in 2021, another Sydney club looks set to take on Project Josh Addo-Carr and work on turning him into a top-class fullback.
Tigers
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The Wests Tigers will have clear running to transform NSW State of Origin star Josh Addo-Carr into a fullback with rivals Canterbury withdrawing their interest in the try-machine.
Addo-Carr’s signature is now the Tigers to lose with News Corp Australia learning that incoming Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett is loath to add another winger to his long-list of outside backs in 2021.
The Dogs currently boast backs Will Hopoate, Nick Meaney, Tim Lafai, Reimis Smith, Jake Averillo, Marcelo Montoya and Kerrod Holland on their books with $1.8 million signing from Canberra, Nick Cotric, also on his way to Belmore next year.
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Canterbury management believe that signing Addo-Carr, who has long been connected to the club, would prove salary cap suicide.
Addo-Carr has made no secret of his desire to leave Melbourne and return to Sydney to be closer to family and it’s expected the Storm will release the Test winger on compassionate grounds at the end of the season.
The Dogs decision to exit any talks with Addo-Carr leaves the Tigers without any market competition which would secure Addo-Carr to a homecoming of sorts.
The premiership and NSW Origin winner played 10 games for the Tigers in 2016 and his return would also coincide with a shift from wing to fullback, which has come with serious concern for former Test forward Mark Geyer.
Geyer said Addo-Carr was a risk for the Tigers at fullback — with a move to centre, a better option.
“I think he’s a born and bred flyer on the wing. Some people are genetically born like that, he’s a sprinter,’’ Geyer said on Triple M.
“He looks like an Olympic runner.
‘I think he’d have more chance of making himself into a centre than a fullback.
“As we’re watching with Latrell (Mitchell) and how hard he’s doing it and he’s played a bit of fullback coming through the grades, he’s a six-foot-five, 105kg man, while Josh Addo-Carr is 85kgs.
“He (Addo-Carr) runs at the moment for about 124-metres a game and every other fullback in the game runs for around 200-metres, so for a start he’d have to up his anti as far as game-inclusion goes, which would take away from his explosiveness and which would take away from his potency.
“Everybody wants to be a fullback because you get more money, he’s being smart.
“But is really being smart to show another side of you that people don’t want to see.
“Every time you get the ball the crowd stands on their feet and that happens 10 times a game. You compare that to 25 times a game (at fullback), where he’ll just be another player.
“(Adam) Doueihi is going to be a great fullback - I think he’s their future at fullback.
“You’ve also got to be mindful if your signing a player from the Storm, how many Storm players go good after they leave?’’
Wests Tigers coach Michael Maguire has held talks with Addo-Carr in recent weeks with premiership-winning coach confident the 25-year-old is the ideal run-threat the Tigers require in their backline.
Ever since the departure of James Tedesco in 2018, the Tigers have been unable to lock-in a long-term plan.
Adam Doueihi is the latest addition and has been making the most of his opportunities at the back.
The signing of Addo-Carr, who has scored 73 tries in 97 first-grade appearances, would prove pivotal for the Tigers recruitment after holding discussions with several major signings over the past 18 months.
Latrell Mitchell, Matt Moylan, Jai Arrow, Kurt Capewell and AJ Brimson are all previous signing targets of the Tigers.
Originally published as NRL 2020: Wests Tigers clear to snare Josh Addo-Carr as Canterbury pull plug on chase