Jarrod Mullen

Jarrod Mullen is a retired player most recently playing for Newcastle Knights.

Jarrod Stephen Mullen (born 9 April 1987) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays for the Newcastle Knights of the National Rugby League (NRL). A New South Wales State of Origin representative half, he has played his entire career with the Knights.

Mullen is a playmaker for the Newcastle Knights. After playing only 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. Most believed that at 20 years of age, the job would go to a more experienced playmaker, but the selectors saw him as a potential long-term prospect. Ultimately, Mullen was dropped after one game, a match in which NSW let slip an 18-6 halftime lead to lose 25-18.

Born in Singleton, NSW, he moved to Newcastle with his family when he was nine. Son of Leeann Mullen and Steve Mullen, a former rugby league player who played for the Canterbury Bulldogs and Western Suburbs Magpies in the 1980s, he was born into the sport and played his first game aged seven for the Taree-Old Bar Lifesavers (now known as Taree Panthers), where it was obvious he had talent. 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.