Mullen doesn’t deserve sympathy, but more support

RUGBY LEAGUE: When a well-adjusted, intelligent and responsible young man like Shane Webcke struggles to come to terms with the end of his playing career, NRL alarm bells should ring loudly.

In essence, when Webcke called it quits at the end of season 2006 he had all his planets aligned.

He was married, had a perfect family support unit with three great kids, a very supportive wife and his mum.

He wasn’t struggling either.

The family owned a pub and a rural property on the Darling Downs, and the chunky prop was also assured the security of a news reading spot on the Channel Seven sports desk in financially Brisbane. But he was still scared. The world, as he knew it, was about to change dramatically and, as a 12-year professional footballer, the safety net had been removed.

If Webcke floundered, how then would Jarrod Mullen have coped when – in the prime of his career and reputedly earning $1 million a season – he was barred from the game for four years for using an anabolic steroid?

If the news which broke this week is an indicator, it’s obvious Mullen has not coped.

Sadly, he is a mere shadow of the 17-year-old halfback I watched debut against the Broncos in Newcastle 14 years ago. I still vividly remember this stocky kid, named to replace the injured Andrew Jones in the No.7 jersey, shining like a beacon in a team whipped 3416.

This week’s news was that Mullen almost died in December – in the family home – from a drug overdose. But while that is devastating, so is the fact that he has since been linked to an alleged drug ring operating in his home town.

Without making excuses for Mullen, his case is somewhat different to what could be described as normal. He had suffered three successive seasons of chronic hamstring injuries and turned to steroids – on poor advice – as a last resort.

And once he was suspended, the NRL compulsorily ostracised him. Mullen could have no contact with the game he played and loved, and that same game could not have contact with him.

When anyone loses their job – for whatever reason – no doubt the pain and embarrassment is excruciating. But imagine the loss Mullen must have felt. Not only had he been sacked from his job, he had been universally banned for four years from the only industry in which he was trained to work.

Like most sports lovers, I abhor illegal drug use. Those risking their future and their reputation by cheating deserve the consequences. And I completely understand the long-term ban.

But the total ostracisation from the game seems tough. Player welfare are two words currently big in the NRL vocabulary and this appears a case where a young man – 27 at the time – who made a horrible mistake and has to deal with the consequences pretty much on his own.

The game needs to be bigger, and better, than that. Surely losing an income and a job, for four years, is punishment enough.

Jarrod Mullen may not have deserved our sympathy, but he obviously deserved some help.