Rugby league rallies to help one of game’s genuine good guys Peter “Skull” Mulholland
One of rugby league’s genuine good guys, Peter Mulholland, tells how a lifetime of footy memories are now helping him through the toughest fight of his life.
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Peter “Skull” Mulholland tells stories from his 40 years in rugby league that make you cry with laughter.
And those memories have never been more important than right now, as one of the game’s genuine good guys tackles the fight of his life.
The 65-year-old current Canberra recruitment chief has dropped 16 kilos since he struggled to walk up his driveway last July, before ultimately being diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in January.
And while dealing with the night sweats and chemotherapy, it’s been flashbacks through decades of identifying, coaching and mentoring a production line of champion footballers and champion people that is getting him through his darkest hours.
Like the time he was coaching Mark Geyer at the Western Reds and the big fella had just come back from a suspension when he got into a stink with John Hopoate.
But it was after MG won himself another date with the judiciary that Mulholland came up with a plan.
“I don’t think Hoppa landed a punch but we thought we’d better put some make-up on MG just to make it look like he had a black eye,” Mulholland laughed.
“Anyway, low and behold, MG turned on the tears during the hearing and then after when we walked outside the weather turned.
“So it’s raining, and I am standing there putting a shield up to try and not show the make-up running down his face.”
Geyer ended up copping a suspension that night.
But to this day Mulholland still rates him one of the greatest success stories rugby league ever produced.
“Of all the people I have coached, the greatest transition in life is his,” Mulholland said.
Mulholland even took time out yesterday to phone Geyer just to wish him the best after the hell of a week he has been through.
Mulholland always had a reputation of seeing the good in people others might rather turn their backs on.
He started out coaching juniors way back in 1974 and after spending 15 years at the famous St Gregory’s College at Campbelltown that produced 20 Australian Schoolboys under his guidance, he went on to work at eight different clubs.
From the old Wests Magpies to North Sydney, the Reds, Penrith, Canterbury, Newcastle, St George Illawarra and now Canberra.
And all that goodwill he handed out is now coming back through messages of support after he joined the World’s Greatest Shave this week to raise money for Blood Cancer.
“I went for a lay down on Tuesday afternoon and my wife rang,” he said.
“She said, ‘how you going?’ I said, ‘all right, but have you had the cat sleeping on my pillow?’
“She said, ‘what are you talking about?’
“So I put my hand in my hair and pulled out a clump.
“I thought, well, I’d better get my hair shaved now.
“It was probably the first realisation of it all.”
But for months now, his close friends have known about Mulholland’s health.
And it has led to people like Mick Potter, a former St Greg’s student who went on to win two Dally M Medals, turning up unannounced to kick-start a working bee at Mulholland’s property.
Now, everywhere he turns, people are putting their hands up to help.
So many high profile names, and others most of us might not remember, but old ‘Skull’ certainly does.
There was this one beautiful message from former Panther, Craig Trindall, that said it best: “Pete Mulholland the man that don’t give up on anything … U never gave up on helping me and I like to say thanks mate … good luck Pete”.
Mulholland concedes he has been overwhelmed: “It is really touching.
“A lot of stuff we get taught in school is irrelevant but the most important thing to teach kids is to treat people the way you want to be treated.
“That is the basis of it all.
“I tried to teach that as much as I could in the classroom and in footy.
“I won’t lie, there are dark moments.
“But I was ready for a fight.
“You know your own body and when I was losing weight I knew something was wrong.
“But my belief is it is what it is, you have got to deal with the cards you have been dealt.
“They now have a conclusive diagnosis and I am happy to work with it.
“It’s a non-Hodkinson’s Lymphoma and it is a strand of it called AITL (Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma).
“I don’t really want to know much about it.
“I have said that to my family, I’d rather just leave myself in the hands of the experts and let them deal with it.
“There are a lot of people out there far worse off than me.”
You can donate at: http://my.leukaemiafoundation.org.au/petermulholland
Originally published as Rugby league rallies to help one of game’s genuine good guys Peter “Skull” Mulholland
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