While playing in Group 6, Mulholland cut his coaching teeth under the watchful eye of Brother Silverius at St Gregory's College, Campbelltown.
Mulholland also oversaw the development of many future 1st Graders like Matt Fuller, Michael Francis, Wayne Evans, Tim Horan and Damien Chapman.
Having fielded offers from Canterbury and Parramatta, Mulholland decided to stay local and assume the reins of the Western Suburbs Magpies U-21 team for the 1988 season, under head coach Laurie Freier.
Agreeing to terms midway through the 1993 season, Mulholland launched an audacious recruitment drive, luring Australian Kangaroos Brad Mackay and Mark Geyer to the golden west.
The Western Reds would win their first ever ARL match with a 28–16 victory over the St George Dragons in front of a sellout crowd at the WACA Ground.
The Skull's words would come back to haunt him in Newcastle a week later when David Waite's Knights buckled the Reds by 48–6, in a battle of the schoolboy master coaches.
In August 2010 it was reported that Mulholland would be leaving Canterbury-Bankstown to spend the 2011 NRL season working as Wayne Bennett's recruitment manager when he moved to Nathan Tinkler's newly acquired Newcastle Knights.