Jarrod Mullen is looking forward to playing behind a bigger Newcastle pack in 2013. Picture: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph
EVERY playmaker needs a dominant pack to shine, so it's no wonder Knights pivot Jarrod Mullen is fired up.
Mullen rates Newcastle's revitalised pack the equivalent of any he's played behind over the past seven seasons. And in terms of big-match experience, his forwards have no peer across the entire competition.
The likely starting six boast a combined total of 138 Origin and Test appearances, with every member having played at least one international for his country.
That's 42 more appearances than the next most seasoned pack - Canterbury (96) - and over six times more representative experience than the least, Parramatta (20).
"It's right up there," Mullen said. "When I first came to the club (in 2006) there were legends like Steve Simpson, but everyone in this pack has Origin or International experience.
"I'm excited to play behind a pack like this - it's a very big and aggressive forward pack. Even playing five-eighth, we were on the back foot at times last year and that made it difficult.
"But we had guys like Alex McKinnon, who was just 19 years old, coming on and playing prop and second row. They tried really hard.
"It was a good experience for everyone and now with guys like Beau Scott and Jeremy Smith, there's more mongrel and size."
Scott, Smith and fellow recruit David Fa'alogo are all renowned for their aggression, giving the Knights some much needed intimidation as they seek to avenge last year's underwhelming 12th-place finish.
"We took a long time to adapt to Wayne's standards and systems," Mullen said.
"A lot of last year's pre-season was about basic skills, but we've already got that covered and are well ahead.
"In the past we'd kind of fallen away from our core skills and we needed to develop that muscle memory again so we could produce under pressure. It took a while but we started to click at the back end of the season.
"Even Wayne said the other day we're leaps and bounds ahead of last year."
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