State of Origin 2018: NSW winger Josh Addo-Carr the fastest player of any football code in Australia
SHUT the gate. NSW State of Origin winger Josh ‘The Fox’ Addo-Carr is not only the fastest player for the Blues — but of any football code in Australia.
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SHUT the gate.
Josh ‘The Fox’ Addo-Carr is not only the fastest player for the NSW Blues — but of any football code in Australia.
That’s the sensational opinion of Australia’s most respected sprint and conditioning coach.
NSW Origin team high performance manager Hayden Knowles has worked with a rich blend of the world’s greatest track and field athletes.
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They include not only NRL speedsters James Roberts and James Tedesco, but Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning long jumper Fabrice Lapierre, discus thrower Dani Samuels, former world boxing champion Danny Green and Jarryd Hayne.
With his contact in world athletics, Knowles was also responsible for bringing the greatest athlete on earth, Usain Bolt, to Australia in 2010 for the Fastest man in football sprint race, which was then won by rugby union flyer, Lachlan Turner.
The Sunday Telegraph cornered Knowles in a bid to have him resolve the most popular and repeated question ahead of Origin I on Wednesday night.
In a blistering backline, who is the fastest player for NSW — Latrell Mitchell, James Tedesco, James Roberts or Addo-Carr?
“I’ve seen a lot, but outside of pure track and field, there wouldn’t be a sports person in any code of Australia as fast as Josh Addo-Carr,’’ Knowles said.
“If we ever put on a cross-code footy race again one day, my money is on Josh Addo-Carr.’’
So confident was Knowles that the Melbourne Storm flyer — whose top speed was clocked at 37.8km/h earlier this year — was the quickest in footy star in the country, he is prepared to make the call without the need for GPS data.
He speaks with the knowledge of having also previously worked alongside NSW coach Brad Fittler in the past two City Origin camps where he trained Tedesco and Roberts.
“It was only the other year that I was blown away by someone like Jimmy Roberts in the City Origin camp,’’ Knowles said.
“Then I had Josh Addo-Carr a year later — and I thought, ‘wow there’s one better than Jimmy Roberts’.
“I’m now seeing him everyday with the Blues and he just does it so effortlessly. He’s the one.
“The best sprinters do make it look so easy and that’s Josh Addo-Carr.’’
Knowles said that not even his passion for sprint coaching could sway him towards a debate settling race between the Blues outside backs during this week’s Origin build-up.
“For the sake of avoiding injury, we’re not going to go and do a 100m race,’’ Knowles said.
“But if we were to do short stuff, you’d probably find Tedesco and Josh would reach similar top speeds on the GPS.
“But that doesn’t show what would happen if they genuinely had a 100m race … Josh would be gone.
“Someone should throw up some sponsorship and we could set it up like a prize fight — the fastest footy stars could race and settle it once and for all.’’
FASTEST IN FOOTY
Rugby League — Josh Addo-Carr (NSW Origin)
AFL — Toby Greene (GWS)
A-League- Nikola Mileusnic (Adelaide United)
Rugby Union — Sefanaia Naivalu (Melbourne Rebels)