Jarrod Mullen

Jarrod Stephen Mullen (born 9 April 1987) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A New South Wales State of Origin representative, he played at five-eighth and halfback. He played his entire career with the Newcastle Knights.

Jarrod Mullen
Mullen in 2012
Personal information
Full nameJarrod Stephen Mullen
Born (1987-04-09) 9 April 1987
Singleton, New South Wales, Australia
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight88 kg (13 st 12 lb)
Playing information
PositionFive-eighth, Halfback
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2005–16 Newcastle Knights 211 39 0 9 165
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2007 New South Wales 1 0 0 0 0
2009–14 NSW Country 4 0 0 0 0
As of 26 March 2017
Source: [1][2]

Mullen was provisionally suspended on 17 January 2017 by the NRL after his A-sample tested positive for an anabolic steroid.[3] On 3 May 2017, he was suspended for 4 years under the League's Anti-Doping Policy. His suspension will expire on 16 January 2021.

Background

Born in Singleton, NSW, he moved to Newcastle with his family when he was nine. Son of Leeann and Steve Mullen, a former rugby league footballer who played for the Canterbury Bulldogs and Western Suburbs Magpies in the 1980s.

Playing career

Early career

Mullen played his first rugby league game aged seven for the Taree-Old Bar Lifesavers (now known as Taree Panthers). Two years later (after a brief stint playing soccer), Mullen relocated to Newcastle, where he continued his junior career with the Western Suburbs club. His first representative game was for St Therese's Primary School, New Lambton, in the Regional Knights Knockout competition, with the school winning the competition in 1996 and 1997. He played most of his junior football at five-eighth.

Mullen joined the Knights as a junior in 1997. He played five-eighth for the NSW under-17s in 2004.

While attending St. Francis Xavier's College in Hamilton, Mullen played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 2004 and 2005.[4]

2005
Mullen kicks the ball in a game in 2009.

Coach Michael Hagan picked Mullen for the first-grade squad aged 18. His first grade debut was on 15 May 2005 at Energy Australia Stadium against the Wests Tigers in round 10. Mullen played eight games for Newcastle in his debut year as the club finished last on the table.[5]

2006

Mullen played 15 games for Newcastle in the 2006 NRL season as Newcastle qualified for the finals. Mullen played in the club's 50-6 elimination finals loss against the Brisbane Broncos at the Sydney Football Stadium.[6]

2007

In 2007, Mullen was selected as starting five-eighth for the Knights. On 10 April 2007, the day after Mullen turned 20, Johns announced his shock retirement from rugby league due to a neck injury. Mullen became first-choice halfback. After playing nine first grade games as halfback and 31 games in total, he was a shock pick at that position for the New South Wales Blues in the 2007 State of Origin series. Mullen was dropped after one game, a match in which NSW let slip an 18-6 halftime lead to lose 25-18. He would never manage to gain selection for New South Wales again.

Mullen playing for the Knights in 2009

2008-2016

Mullen continued to play for Newcastle and featured in the club's finals campaigns in 2009 and in 2013 where they reached the preliminary final against the Sydney Roosters under the coaching of Wayne Bennett. In 2015 and 2016, Mullen was part of the Newcastle sides which finished last on the table.[7][8][9]

2017

During a pre-season training session in November 2016, Mullen was tested, with the A-sample testing positive for an anabolic steroid and he was provisionally suspended on 17 January 2017 by the NRL.[3] Mullen's B-sample tested positive to the steroid Drostanolone, confirmed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency on 7 March 2017 and he was handed a Notice of Alleged Anti-Doping Rule Violations.[10] Mullen is opting to challenge the matter with the anti-doping tribunal.[11]

Representative career

Mullen was selected in his first senior representative team, the Prime Minister's XIII, for a game against Papua New Guinea in 2006. He played with a young team in Port Moresby on 30 September, starting on the bench as a utility player. In 2007, he was picked for the New South Wales side. Mullen was not selected in the NSW State of Origin team for Game 2 due to a torn calf muscle. In opening rounds of 2008, Mullen again showed promise but succumbed to a calf injury in Round 4. Outstanding performances on his return against competition leaders Gold Coast and Melbourne thrust him back into Origin contention, jostling for the halfback spot with Brisbane's Peter Wallace, Manly's Matt Orford and Parramatta's Brett Finch.

Mullen has played for Country in the annual City vs Country on four occasions between 2009 and 2014.[12]

Controversy

In March 2019, it was revealed that Mullen almost died of a drug overdose at a friend's party back in December 2018. Mullen was taken to hospital in a critical condition and spent two days in intensive care as a result. In the following days, the Newcastle Knights released a statement denying that any of the club's current players were at the party. Newcastle CEO Phil Gardner said “To the best of my knowledge, none of our top 36 were at any of those parties, I think the reports aren’t accurate. I don’t know why they’re being reported. But it certainly doesn’t represent the facts".[13]

On 4 December 2019, Mullen pleaded guilty at Newcastle Local Court to one charge of supplying cocaine. Mullen was arrested by police in May 2019 and was initially charged with four counts of supplying a prohibited drug. Agreed facts tendered to court stated Mullen purchased a total of 39 grams of cocaine from a co-offender between November 23 and 30 in 2018 for the purpose of supply and personal use.

A pre-sentence report was scheduled ahead of his sentence in February 2020.[14]

On 26 February 2020, Mullen avoided jail and was instead given a two-year community corrections order and 300 hours of community service.[15]

gollark: You can't.
gollark: Ideally not ncurses, it's kind of weird.
gollark: Curses indeed.
gollark: If some way to run CC programs on native Lua and not LuaJ ever comes out it'll make my PotatOS² concept easier.
gollark: All hail Linux, as I always say.

References
  1. "Jarrod Mullen - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  3. "Jarrod Mullen provisionally suspended". Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  4. "SportingPulse Homepage for Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". SportingPulse. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
  5. "The worst teams in NRL history". Sporting News.
  6. "Brisbane Broncos 50 def. Newcastle Knights 6". Rugby League Project.
  7. "Panthers hand Knights the wooden spoon". NRL.
  8. "Sione Mata'utia says the time has come for the Knights young guns to deliver". Daily Telegraph.
  9. "Sydney Roosters defeat Newcastle Knights 40-14, will meet Manly Sea Eagles in Grand Final". www.dailytelegraph.com.au.
  10. "Jarrod Mullen's B-sample tests positive to banned anabolic steroid, all but ending NRL career". ABC News. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  11. "Jarrod Mullen to challenge NRL drug ban". Fox Sports. 17 March 2017. Archived from the original on 23 March 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  12. Balym, Todd (3 May 2009). "Blues halfback duel in two as Mitchell Pearce misses selection". Fox Sports. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  13. "Newcastle denies Knights players witnessed Mullen overdose". Fox Sports.
  14. "Jarrod Mullen, former Newcastle Knights star, pleads guilty to cocaine charge". www.abc.net.au.
  15. "Former Newcastle player spared jail". www.foxsports.com.au.
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