It’s never easy for any team to experience a losing streak, but according to Jarrod Mullen, tough times have the potential to develop more resilient players.
He knows because he’s been through times like this before and has come out the other side.
“There’s a lot of young kids in the team that it’s probably their first or second year of rugby league,” he said on Monday.
“I remember in my first year, we lost 13 in a row coming in.
“It’s not the best start to your career, but if you go through things like this, it makes you stronger as a rugby league player.
“Things could be a lot worse at the moment but we need to winning some more games for our fans and our families."
For Mullen, the key is sticking together during the tough times.
“When you are in situations like this, and I’ve been in it once or twice here in Newcastle, you just have to stick together," he added.
“To get out of a situation like this, the whole team needs to stick together.
“The Knights’ fans and we deserve better and we need to put the hard yards in at training.”
The 28-year-old made a return from a toe injury and was pleased to make it through the game against the Canberra Raiders after sitting on the sidelines for 10 weeks.
“It didn’t pull up too bad and after the game it wasn’t too bad, but as the weekend went on there was a bit of delayed muscle soreness,” he assessed.
“I am off legs today and have a bit of recovery tomorrow.
“I’m pretty confident I’ll play again, but I just have to keep managing it."
Mullen is weighing up the best time to have surgery on his toe, which could see a recovery time of between three to five months.
“It’s a long injury and not fun at all, so we are trying to delay this as much as we can,” he said.
“One surgeon has said three months, so if I can get through the end of the season and do I then, then I can be back by next season, so we will wait to see what happens.
“It’s just something we need to manage at the moment and the main goal is to get out there and play.”
Reflecting on Friday night’s loss, the five-eighth acknowledged the Knights need to ensure they’re switched on from kick off.
“It’s just our first 20 minutes have been crucial,” he said.
“To give a side like Canberra 24 points and try to run them down, you just can’t do it.
“We are waiting for things to click into gear before we actually do the right thing like have three men in a tackle.
“On the weekend we were only making two man tackles and they were just rolling us down the field.
“That’s something we need to work on that at training, hold our gloves up in the middle there and definitely out wide.
“We need to work on that at the start of the game to get us into games better.”
The Knights host the Gold Coast Titans this Saturday in Heritage Round at Hunter Stadium.
