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http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/dont-crucify-my-boy/2007/05/15/1178995162573.html
Don't crucify my Origin boy
Andrew Webster | May 16, 2007
Does he have enough experience? Will he handle the pressure? Is he up to it? Leaann Mullen is worried for her son.
"I'm worried this might break him," says the mother of Newcastle's rookie halfback, after his selection in the NSW State of Origin side yesterday.
She pleaded with Blues fans not to "crucify" her 20-year-old son, Jarrod, if NSW loses game one against Queensland next Wednesday night. "There's so much pressure on him. I know in my heart that he will do well. But if he doesn't, he doesn't deserve to be crucified."
For Newcastle, Mullen had already answered the hard questions after Andrew Johns retired last month with a serious neck injury. Yes, he was up to it. But now the state asks the same after he was named as NSW halfback for the opening Origin match.
Yesterday Mullen sat in the same seat at Newcastle's EnergyAustralia Stadium as Johns did when he retired on April 10 and declared he would not let anyone down at Suncorp Stadium on May 23.
At the same time, near a coalmine between Singleton and Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, his father Steve - a former Bulldogs and Wests second-rower during the 1980s - was asleep, before starting a night shift.
Around the corner, at Hunter Valley Hampers and Gifts, his mother Leeann made her plea to Blues fans to go easy on her son.
Mullen has grown tired of comparisons to Johns almost as much as the retired playmaker has. A message from Johns was delivered to the press asking it not "to ask any of those stupid questions about being the next Joey" - or the media conference would be cut short. Yet the similarities are remarkable.
Johns was thrown in the Origin deep end in 1995 when Super League thrust him into the No. 7 jumper ahead of time. He was 21.
"I've had the best help in the world from Joey," Mullen said. "I'm just looking forward to my time now and looking to play my own game."
All that's needed now is one of those Johns-like performances.
Don't crucify my Origin boy
Andrew Webster | May 16, 2007
Does he have enough experience? Will he handle the pressure? Is he up to it? Leaann Mullen is worried for her son.
"I'm worried this might break him," says the mother of Newcastle's rookie halfback, after his selection in the NSW State of Origin side yesterday.
She pleaded with Blues fans not to "crucify" her 20-year-old son, Jarrod, if NSW loses game one against Queensland next Wednesday night. "There's so much pressure on him. I know in my heart that he will do well. But if he doesn't, he doesn't deserve to be crucified."
For Newcastle, Mullen had already answered the hard questions after Andrew Johns retired last month with a serious neck injury. Yes, he was up to it. But now the state asks the same after he was named as NSW halfback for the opening Origin match.
Yesterday Mullen sat in the same seat at Newcastle's EnergyAustralia Stadium as Johns did when he retired on April 10 and declared he would not let anyone down at Suncorp Stadium on May 23.
At the same time, near a coalmine between Singleton and Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, his father Steve - a former Bulldogs and Wests second-rower during the 1980s - was asleep, before starting a night shift.
Around the corner, at Hunter Valley Hampers and Gifts, his mother Leeann made her plea to Blues fans to go easy on her son.
Mullen has grown tired of comparisons to Johns almost as much as the retired playmaker has. A message from Johns was delivered to the press asking it not "to ask any of those stupid questions about being the next Joey" - or the media conference would be cut short. Yet the similarities are remarkable.
Johns was thrown in the Origin deep end in 1995 when Super League thrust him into the No. 7 jumper ahead of time. He was 21.
"I've had the best help in the world from Joey," Mullen said. "I'm just looking forward to my time now and looking to play my own game."
All that's needed now is one of those Johns-like performances.