{"id":90379,"date":"2021-06-24T14:20:05","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T14:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=90379"},"modified":"2021-06-24T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T16:57:09","slug":"mental-nsw-hardmans-ridiculous-carry-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=90379","title":{"rendered":"'Mental' NSW hardman's 'ridiculous' carry-on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns answers in an instant when prodded on his most anxious teammate in the sheds ahead of State of Origin<\/a> games.<\/p>\n

"Mark Carroll," the NSW Blues legend says on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviou<\/em>r, shaking his head.<\/p>\n

"Mark Carroll was just ridiculous."<\/p>\n

'Spud' was one of the toughest front-rowers of the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After beginning his first-grade career with Penrith in 1987, he'd eventually round out a 185-game career after stints with South Sydney and Manly.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He played his best club footy at the Sea Eagles, developing into an elite prop under the reign of the late and great Bob Fulton, Manly's coach. Carroll, Cliffy Lyons, Geoff Toovey, Steve Menzies and Des Hasler were among the greats of Manly's 1996 grand final victory over St George.<\/p>\n

In the Origin cauldron, Carroll eked out seven games, taking on Queensland's biggest and ugliest alongside front-row buddy 'The Chief', Newcastle workhorse Paul Harrigan.<\/p>\n

It was Carroll who ensured Blues coach Tommy Raudonikis' fabled 'Cattledog' cry sparked the chaos intended. Carroll hit Maroons front-rower Craig Smith in a scrum and an all-in brawl erupted.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By Johns' account, Carroll was just as crazy in the sheds as he was on the field.<\/p>\n

"He'd pace the sheds and he wouldn't like to see his jersey til about five minutes before he runs on the field, so he would just be stalking the sheds in shorts, no shirt," Johns says.<\/p>\n

"I think a lot of it was for show. He'd be hitting things, hitting this, just going mental.<\/p>\n

"And then all of a sudden … the five-minute bell would go and he'd start yelling, 'Jersey! Jersey!' Someone would run with a jersey.<\/p>\n

"And we'd just be thinking, 'Is this bloke serious? Just put your jersey on, mate'.<\/p>\n

"But that's 'Spud'!<\/p>\n

"Love ya, 'Spud'."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns answers in an instant when prodded on his most anxious teammate in the sheds ahead of State of Origin games. "Mark Carroll," the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90381,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90379\/revisions\/90381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}