IN the 18 completed seasons since their 2001 grand final triumph, the Newcastle Knights have won only three play-off games.
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Of those post-season victories, against Manly (25-18) in 2006 and Canterbury (22-6) and Melbourne (18-16) in 2013, just two players appeared on each occasion.
One was Hall of Fame hooker and former Test captain Danny Buderus, whose return to the Knights this week in a new role as football director was greeted with fanfare and excitement.
But while one of the club's most revered figures was welcomed back into the fold, the fortunes of his former teammate provided a stark contrast.
Barely 24 hours after the Knights announced Buderus's appointment, Jarrod Mullen was appearing in Wollongong Local Court, where he was given a two-year community corrections order and 300 hours of community service after pleading guilty to dealing more than $10,000 in cocaine.
His fall was so sudden and so spectacular that it would have been unthinkable during the 2013 finals series, when Mullen, in the absence of an injured Kurt Gidley, thrived on the responsibility of leading his home-town club.
With the benefit of hindsight, a series of unfortunate events started to unfold barely six months later, when Mullen tore his hamstring at the Auckland Nines.
The injury would recur several times over the next few seasons, culminating in surgery to reattach it to the bone.
Throw in a couple of concussions and a broken bone in his foot, and Mullen played only 40 games in the next three years.
By this point, he was Newcastle's highest-paid player and the Knights were well on their way to a second consecutive wooden spoon.
As he said at the time: "To keep getting struck down by big injuries is frustrating ... when the team's going poorly, you just feel helpless."
His uneasy relationship with Knights coach Nathan Brown added to the stress he was under.
One of Brown's first big decisions on arriving in Newcastle was to sanction Mullen for drinking at the club Christmas party when he had a minor calf injury. He then ignored him for the club captaincy, appointing Trent Hodkinson, Jeremy Smith and Tariq Sims as co-leaders.
Given that Brown had already started culling players he did not feel were earning their salaries, Mullen was entitled to feel nervous about his long-term job security.
People under pressure are prone to rash decisions, and in the 2016-17 off-season Mullen made one he later admitted "pretty much ruined my life". On November 29, a routine ASADA drug test revealed he had taken drostanolone, a steroid popular among bodybuilders but which can also reportedly be used as a cutting agent with cocaine.
Mullen later claimed a trusted confidant recommended "an amino acid injection" to treat his chronic hamstring injury, but that excuse carried little weight with the authorities.
The Knights tore up his seven-figure contract, and he received the maximum ban of four years. At 29, his career appeared to be over.
Devastated as he was, the word was that the former NSW Origin representative was coping, at least initially.
He was part-owner of a restaurant in Honeysuckle, and at various times found work as a wharfie and a personal trainer.
But almost inevitably, without the day-to-day NRL routine that had been his life since debuting as an 18-year-old schoolboy, Mullen went off the rails.
During his 12 seasons with the Knights, the club endured a number of scandals and was widely suspected of having a social-drug culture, despite the repeated denials from officials.
Cast on the scrapheap, Mullen soon found himself surrounded by bad influences and, as an ex-player with no football career to safeguard, succumbed to temptation.
In December 2018, he reportedly almost died after overdosing on cocaine. A stint in rehab followed and then he was arrested and charged with four counts of supplying a prohibited drug.
"Ever since my career finished, I spiralled out of control and was taking cocaine on a daily basis just to get through the day, to suppress the demons, I suppose," Mullen told police.
"There'd be some days where I'd have three grams [of cocaine] to myself, which is a lot ... I was out of control."
Since his stint in rehab, Mullen has reportedly stayed clean and is determined to remain so.
In court this week, his lawyer said he still dreams of resurrecting his rugby league career, which would appear a long shot, given that his suspension does not lapse until December this year, by which time he will be 33.
But another ambition, to become an advocate who counsels young NRL players about the perils of drugs, seems an option the governing body, or the Knights, should explore.
Who better to deliver the message than someone who has been there, done that?
It was also revealed in court this week that Mullen is soon to become a father for the first time, and hopefully responsibility brings out the best in him, as it did in the 2013 play-offs.
Having known Jarrod for 15 years, I wish him well.
He's lived the dream. He's lived the nightmare. Here's hoping to can find happiness in day-to-day reality.