Jarrod Mullen: It's time for me to aim up
BY BRETT KEEBLE
IT is make or break time for Jarrod Mullen, and he knows it.
Newcastle's gifted on-field general is one of the NRL's premier players on his day, but he concedes there is too much boom or bust about his game.
Mullen's main goal this season, his sixth in the NRL, is to close the gaps between the peaks and troughs and become a more consistent contributor for the Knights each week.
His leadership qualities will be even more in demand in the indefinite absence of injured skipper Kurt Gidley, whose return date remains unknown.
"Yeah, 100 per cent . . . some days I can be on and some days I can be really off, so just getting that consistency is the big thing," Mullen said.
"Coming to training, doing it consistently at training, hopefully it can transfer to the games.
"It's not easy playing at the top of your game week in, week out in the NRL, but the more consistent I can do it, the better the team will be.
"It's probably nearly D-day for me this year.
"I've had a few seasons here at the Knights. I'm more of a leader now, so I'll have to step it up this year and I've been doing that in my training.
"I suppose that will be even more of an issue now with Kurt out for maybe the first few weeks of the comp."
Not yet 23, Mullen has already logged 79 NRL matches and is on track to become the youngest player in Knights history to reach the 100-game milestone. Sean Rudder (23 years, 179 days) holds that record ahead of Steve Simpson (23 years, 182 days) but Mullen who turns 23 on April 9 will pass them if he plays the required 21 games this year.
Mullen has received rave reviews for many man-of-the-match efforts since making his NRL debut as an 18-year-old in April 2005, and representative selectors have rewarded his performances and potential with NSW, Country Origin and Prime Minister's XIII jerseys.
He has copped the odd rocket too, like the one fired by Knights coach Rick Stone after Newcastle's 26-12 loss to the Bulldogs in the first round of the finals last year.
"I just probably thought we needed our halves to stand up a bit at 18-12 and just help us a little bit more," a blunt Stone told the media after that game.
"We had a lot of tired bodies out there . . . Kurt [Gidley] was on one leg pretty much for the last 20 as well . . . so I would have liked to see [Scott] Dureau and Mullo just stand up a little bit and give us a little bit more guidance.
"But that comes with the evolution of them as players and we'll keep working on that."
In a sport dominated by spin and safety-first answers, Stone's honesty was refreshing, and he did not resile from his response when asked to revisit it.
"We just needed to have a better kicking game and finish off our sets a little bit better in that game. You play that position, you take that responsibility," Stone said of his playmakers.
"It's a bit like the Super Bowl. The quarterbacks basically get all the glory when the team wins, and they probably get scrutinised the most when it doesn't work out for them, which is what happened to [losing Indianapolis Colts quarterback] Peyton Manning.
"They're the big-money players, and they've got to put on the big plays, under pressure, and they've got to do it consistently. It's no different in rugby league.
"Our sixes and sevens, nines and ones, they're the sort of blokes who have got to come up with the right sort of plays for you consistently. It's just in their job description. If you don't like doing it, well, you're probably in the wrong position."
Mullen, who declined interview requests after that game, accepted Stone's criticism but said he had moved on and was looking forward to the challenges ahead.
"You've got to accept that because that's the role you play, but that was last year," Mullen said.
"Every time you lose a game, it always falls back on the halves.
"It probably was a fair call. There was a chance in the second half that we could have executed better, but that was '09 and we're looking forward to 2010."
Mullen hopes he is playing well enough to earn further representative honours this year but said winning games for the Knights and returning to the finals remained his priority.
No longer worried about living up to the hype of being "the next Andrew Johns", he is more concerned with putting his own stamp on the Knights.
"I suppose as a young kid coming up with a lot of expectations on you, you really do put a hard mark on yourself," he said.
"It's not always easy, coming in after Joey retires and people expect you to be as good as him, but no one in the game will be for another 100 years or something.
"It was always going to be tough, but I've sort of gotten past that stage now and I'm my own player and I've got my own role in the team, and all the team accepts that."
Herald
