From NRL to Mentors: How Former Players Find New Purpose Through Coaching

Mullen noted that Sam Burgess served his coaching apprenticeship in the same competition, steering Orara Valley Axemen to the 2022 Group 2 grand final, before joining South Sydney as an assistant and then landing the top job at Super League club Warrington.

Carney and Mullen, who both played in the halves for NSW, have turned their lives around after much-publicised incidents ended their NRL playing days.

Carney’s turbulent 166-game career finished in 2014 when, following a series of alcohol-related incidents, he was sacked by Cronulla and deregistered by the governing body after the infamous “bubbler” photograph surfaced on social media.

Despite playing four more seasons in Super League, he never returned to the NRL and is perhaps better remembered for off-field misdemeanours than as a player who won the Dally M medal and represented NSW and Australia.

In retirement, Carney has married, become a father, run his own concreting business and reportedly stayed sober for more than two years.

In an Instagram post, the 39-year-old said the job at the Titans was “something I don’t take for granted for a second”.

“It wasn’t handed to me. It was earned,” he said.

Mullen’s ultimate goal is also to work in the NRL, but he believes he also has a lot to offer the code as a qualified drugs-and-alcohol counsellor, given that he knows better than most the devastating impact illicit substances can have on an athlete’s career, and their life.

Mullen tested positive in 2016 to a banned steroid, which he says was prescribed by a physiotherapist he had been seeing privately to treat a chronic hamstring injury. That led to a four-year WADA ban, ending a 211-game NRL career at the age of 29.

The devastated Mullen, who like Carney debuted in the NRL as an 18-year-old, admitted his life soon “spiralled” without the structure of professional football.

He recalled doing “three to four grams of coke a day for six months there at one stage”, before it all came to a head with a near-fatal overdose at his parents’ house. When he awoke in hospital, he immediately checked into rehab and, seven years later, is proud to say he has not touched drugs or alcohol since.

Jarrod Mullen during his final season with Newcastle, in 2016.” loading=”lazy” src=”https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.394%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_19%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/b2c77af184444dfc3a646a6d968c7a896f3ce24d” height=”349″ width=”620″ srcset=”https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.394%2C$multiply_0.5855%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_19%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/b2c77af184444dfc3a646a6d968c7a896f3ce24d, https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.394%2C$multiply_1.1709%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_19%2C$y_0/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/b2c77af184444dfc3a646a6d968c7a896f3ce24d 2x”/>

“I still say to this day, the overdose is probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said.

“It happened for a reason, and it made me wake up to myself.”

His ordeal was not over, however.

When Mullen emerged from rehab, he was soon dealing with a new dilemma. Earlier police surveillance emerged and he was charged with supplying cocaine.

He was sentenced to 300 hours of community service, avoiding jail. For the next 12 months, he clocked on at St Vincent de Paul twice a week to fold second-hand clothes for eight hours a day.

Meanwhile, the former Knights skipper was completing a TAFE course to become a drugs-and-alcohol counsellor.

When his WADA ban lapsed, Mullen made a bold attempt to return to the NRL at the age of 34, signing with Melbourne’s Queensland Cup feeder team, the Sunshine Coast Falcons.

A shoulder injury cruelled him, but Mullen continued to play, for Corrimal Cougars in the Illawarra competition, then last year with Port Macquarie Breakers on the Mid-North Coast, only to rupture his Achilles tendon at the age of 38.

“I know I’ve got a lot to give back to the NRL and the generation coming through, for sure,” he said.

“I’ve been to the highest highs and the lowest lows, so I know what to expect, I know what the kids are going through, I know about the pressure and all that.

“I’d like to help them navigate the way through. It doesn’t have to be related to football, it could be off-field stuff.

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“Everything I went through, if I can help one kid get through their life or their career and be a better person, I’m definitely happy to help anyone I can.”

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