![\"Todd](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4040907585a8299e41d7391d55713a2df8c042cf.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMullen 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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Todd Carney at the Sharks in 2012.Credit: Steve Christo<\/p>\n
Carney\u2019s 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 \u201cbubbler\u201d photograph surfaced on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and represented NSW and Australia.<\/p>\n In retirement, Carney has married, become a father, run his own concreting business and reportedly stayed sober for more than two years.<\/p>\n In an Instagram post, the 39-year-old said the job at the Titans was \u201csomething I don\u2019t take for granted for a second\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t handed to me. It was earned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mullen\u2019s 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\u2019s career, and their life.<\/p>\n Mullen tested positive in 2016 to a banned steroid,<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n The devastated Mullen, who like Carney debuted in the NRL as an 18-year-old, admitted his life soon \u201cspiralled\u201d without the structure of professional football.<\/p>\n He recalled doing \u201cthree to four grams of coke a day for six months there at one stage\u201d, before it all came to a head with a near-fatal overdose at his parents\u2019 house<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Jarrod Mullen during his final season with Newcastle, in 2016.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cI still say to this day, the overdose is probably the best thing that ever happened to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt happened for a reason, and it made me wake up to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n His ordeal was not over, however.<\/p>\n![\"Jarrod](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b2c77af184444dfc3a646a6d968c7a896f3ce24d.jpeg\")
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![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b10329f6b5c395c224a0f58fabba544fd81dd099.jpeg\")
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