Ben Alexander (13 September 1971 – 21 June 1992) was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer for the Penrith Panthers in the

New South Wales Rugby League premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

. He was the younger brother of Australian Rugby League international Greg Alexander. His position of choice was at , or as a , or .

Football

Ben Alexander made his first grade debut in the 1990 season and was a non-playing reserve in the Panthers inaugural

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

winning team in 1991 (the Panthers were captained by his brother Greg).

Career playing statistics

Point scoring summary

Matches played

Death

On 21 June 1992, at the age of just 20, Alexander was killed in a car crash in Colyton, a suburb in western Sydney. It was later reported that his blood alcohol level was 0.148, almost three times the legal limit of 0.05. The tragic event occurred on a night that was meant to be one of celebration for the Panthers, as it was the night they had been presented with premiership blazers for their 1991 success. Alexander's death had a profound effect on not only his family, but also the Penrith Panthers. While the Panthers form in their premiership defence was inconsistent prior to 21 June, the Panthers then failed to reach the 1992 Finals series, finishing in 9th place with an 11–11 record. For Ben's older brother, Greg, his death had a longer term effect. Greg missed most of the second half of the season, and endured (by his lofty standards) run of the mill

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

seasons. He then decided he needed time away from Sydney and joined a new club, the New Zealand-based Auckland Warriors for both

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, before returning to the Panthers for the inaugural Super League season in 1997. Ben and Greg's brother-in-law, Panthers international second-rower Mark Geyer (who is married to their sister), also decided he needed a change and left the Panthers after 1992 to join the Balmain Tigers in 1993.

References

External links

1991 Penrith Panthers season review
1971 births 1992 deaths Alcohol-related deaths in Australia Australian rugby league players Penrith Panthers players Road incident deaths in New South Wales Rugby league halfbacks Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Penrith, New South Wales {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1970s-stub