Westpac NSW Blues winger Josh Addo-Carr returns to the NRL Indigenous All Stars side as one of five True Blues for the annual men’s game between First Nations and Maori players next week.
In the women’s match, 10 True Blues have been named for the 16 February cultural event at Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium – six in the Indigenous side and four for Maori.
Addo-Carr, who captained the Indigenous team in 2022, withdrew from the 2023 clash after a lengthy World Cup campaign where he scored 12 tries in five games.
Joining him in the 2024 side squad are True Blues Nicho Hynes, Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker.
All three were part of the 28-24 win over Maori in Rotorua, New Zealand, last February.
True Blue Dylan Walker is making his comeback to the Maori side in 2024, which is being coached by former NRL premiership-winning prop Adam Blair.
Back-rower Shaylee Bent and utility Quincy Dodd will both make their sixth appearance for the Indigenous All Stars this year – the most by any player in the team.
Alongside them will be Westpac NSW Sky Blues players Jaime Chapman, Kirra Dibb, Taliah Fuimaono and Olivia Kernick, who is making her debut in the Indigenous team.
Kernick has dual heritage in her family and has already played twice for the Maori All Stars.
The four Origin players in the Maori team are Brooke Anderson, Corban Baxter, Kennedy Cherrington and Botille Vette-Welsh.
Vette-Welsh claims her second representative jersey after returning from a knee reconstruction in 2022, which ended her consecutive run of Origin jerseys (2019-2021).
She was named in the Prime Minister’s XIII to play PNG last September.
