Jarrod Mullen admits Newcastle have a lot to learn from Wayne Bennett before they can become a genuine force in the NRL.

Bennett’s new side were largely outplayed by his former St George Illawarra team in Thursday night’s season-opener, but only went down 15-14 thanks to a Jamie Soward field goal in golden point extra time at Hunter Stadium.

The veteran coach declared his Knights were a work in progress after the game and halfback Mullen said they need to learn quick with tough tests against Cronulla and Brisbane coming up in their next two games.

“Silly mistakes at crucial times were costly,” Mullen said.

“That was the story of our season last year and we need to get it right soon.

“We’ll take confidence from the way we hung in there, but things don’t get any easier.

“The Sharks down there will be tough then it’s Brisbane so we’d better improve fast.”

Mullen scored a superb opportunistic try late in the first half when he caught Beau Scott unawares and darted out of dummy-half to sprint 30 metres to the line.

However, the 24-year-old felt he let himself down with some poor defending for the two Dragons’ tries.

“I have been encouraged to run the ball a bit more by Wayne and I guess what I did was a bit instinctive,” he said.

“But I should have done a lot better for their two tries and that’s very disappointing.”

Returning Knights hero Danny Buderus echoed Mullen’s sentiments after making his second debut for the club following his three-year stint with Leeds.

“We learned a harsh lesson last night,” Buderus said.

“It’s no secret you need to control the ball at crucial times and we didn’t do that,” Buderus said.

“The best thing is that it’s on again next week and we can dissect this game on the video and work on it.”

Buderus was solid in defence, making more than 40 tackles, and although the former NSW skipper said he was not surprised by the pace of the game, his body would need a few days to get over it.

“Both teams kept it in the middle a lot so there was a lot of defending to be done and it stretched the legs a bit,” he said.

“But it is a bit like breaking in a cricket bat. Once you have played a few rounds, you feel on top of it.”