Foxx trots on with hat-trick and renewed Bulldogs belief

Josh Addo-Carr walked into his old stomping ground of AAMI Park without a try to his name in 2024, but emerged 80 minutes later with a hat-trick and a renewed confidence in his side's resilience.

In familiar surroundings against his old club, the Fox was a constant threat against the Storm and, on another day, his hat-trick would have been a match winner.

“It’s hard scoring tries in this competition, and I love scoring them,” he told NRL.com post-match, explaining that his celebrations were “pure passion.”

“We didn’t get the result but we’re going to keep working.

“Keep our heads up and keep working hard,” he said. “That’s what we’re going to do. Stay positive. Little moments in the game let us down, but we go again.”

His coach agreed with the star winger's sentiments, telling the team to be proud of their performance and to remember that despite being away from home and undermanned, they can compete with anyone in the competition.

“I couldn’t be any prouder,” Cameron Ciraldo said in the post-match press conference. “I feel like I’ve been saying that after a few losses lately, but I think everyone can see how the boys are playing, how committed they are.

“What we can take away is a whole lot of belief, because there’s a whole lot of things we’re doing that are working.”

I hope they’re believing as much as what they’re making me believe in [them] at the moment.

Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo

“We’re working really hard,” Addo-Carr added. “That’s what it means. Bulldogs work hard. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

“I feel like our mental game this year has been really good. Last year if a team put two tries on us, we probably would have lost our heads. But we’re trusting the process and we’re smiling through adversity. That’s what we want.”

“We’re building. We’re building slowly, and we want to get better every week.”