Canberra Raiders greats Brett Mullins and Brett Hetherington's family business sees loyalties divided

Brett Mullins and Brett Hetherington were both members of the Raiders Hall of Fame.

They both played in the Green Machine's 1994 premiership.

While Mullins' nephew James Schiller will line up on the Raiders' wing at Newcastle on Sunday, his other nephew Jack Hetherington - Brett's son - will start on the Knights bench.

It's the first time the cousins have played either against or with each other - with Schiller thinking they might not have even played in the backyard.

In good news for the Raiders, Schiller will go into the game 100 per cent having struggled with a virus in the lead-up to the win over the Cronulla Sharks last weekend.

He hadn't trained until Thursday last week, but couldn't turn down the opportunity to play his 7^th NRL game following the injury to Nick Cotric (hamstring) late in the week.

Schiller revealed they'd already had a bit of friendly family banter on the phone and predicted they'd catch up for a laugh after the game.

It's not only the first time the pair have played each other, but it's the first time Hetherington's played against his father's old club.

Schiller tipped it could be an intimidating experience for the fiery prop.

"With his dad's history here and the rest of our family's history here it might be a bit daunting for him," he told The Canberra Times.

"But Jack's a very professional athlete and he takes his job very seriously so I know he's going to go out there with the mentality that he's playing to win for the Knights and he's not playing against his dad's club, he's not playing against who his family played for.

"He's playing for the Knights and he's going to play the best he can for the Knights - as I am for the Raiders as well."

Hetherington, a man of fewer words than his cousin, was looking forward to the contest.

He revealed he was almost a teammate of Schiler's following the Raiders' interest in him last year.

The Raiders tried to sign him in the wake of Adam Elliott's departure to the Knights.

They thought they were going to hang on to Elliott, but Newcastle upped their offer.

The Knights then also landed Hetherington, who also has family ties to the Newcastle area.

"I've never played Canberra so I'm excited. [Dad] just says go out and go hard," he said.

"I was close [to joining the Raiders], but my family's from up here too so it just made sense.

"My family's up here and my wife's family's up here too so it was best for us to sign here. And I'm glad I did, it's been so good."

Schiller lost weight due to his virus last week, but has put that straight back on.

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He wasn't happy with his game against the Sharks, but drew praise from his coach Ricky Stuart following the game.

With veteran winger Jordan Rapana returning from suspension next week, and Albert Hopoate performing well on the other Raiders wing, he felt he might have to bide his time for another opportunity in NSW Cup after Sunday.

"If I get dropped back again next week to Cup so be it, because Rappa's coming back and Hoppa's in fantastic form," Schiller said.

"I'll have to bide my time again and I'm more than happy to do that.

"I've just got to take these little opportunities like this that I get and try and create something from that."

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