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THE penny finally dropped for Jarrod Mullen the day Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett publicly declared his captain's skill-set was the equal of any player he has ever coached including Broncos legend Darren Lockyer.
If Bennett was looking to flick a switch inside the head of his most influential player to help Mullen overcome the mental demons that have held back his career, it was a masterstroke.
Up until then, all those years of mentoring from the great Andrew Johns, all those years of repetition on the training paddock, all those hours upon hours of hard work had only ensured the Knights playmaker reached a level a rung or two below where he aspired to be.
A level, which his critics would argue with some justification, would find him wanting mentally if the pressure was on and the chips were down.
A level which threw up the odd brilliant performance in and around some average and mediocre ones.
Never the consistency that sets champions apart.
Until this season.
If Mullen doesn't win this year's Dally M Award (he's been invited for the very first time by the way), most in the game believe he will be thereabouts.
And if Newcastle is to sweep past Melbourne on Saturday night to book an unlikely preliminary final showdown with the Sydney Roosters, those same people will tell you Mullen will have to be one of the most influential players on the field.
Mullen says the form of the team and the influence of "some great old heads" around him has made his job easier this season.
But he says the biggest impact has come from Bennett.
"He's just put the belief in me and my own performance," Mullen says simply.
"Told me to go out there and not doubt myself. Probably in the past, I've second-guessed my ability or second-guessed things out on the field. That's probably why I haven't been consistent.
"He sees enough in me to go out and do what I do and back my own instincts."
"The players he has coached in the past in Lockyer and that - for him to say skills-wise I am up there, it puts a lot of confidence in me."
The irony in all of this is Mullen's not the first playmaker to have grown an extra leg under Bennett's coaching.
The last player to emerge from the pack and put his stamp on the competition after being mentored by the game's premier coach was Jamie Soward at the St George Illawarra.
That partnership produced a premiership at the Dragons in 2010.
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