Think and Drive campaign: League great Brad Fittler still affected by news of mate’s road death

LEAGUE legend Brad Fittler can still see Mal Meninga walking towards him in a Sydney nightclub. What Meninga would then tell him has affected Fittler since.

NICK WALSHAW

3 min read

August 31, 2018 - 12:00AM

NSW

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BRAD Fittler can still see his Australian captain Mal Meninga, schooner in hand, walking toward him inside that Sydney nightclub.

The year was 1992.

And Freddy, still a Kangaroo newbie, a kid only months on from both his teens and a Winfield Cup premiership with Penrith, was preparing for what must surely be another round of beers from his captain.

Brad Fittler: “It really felt like someone picked up our little community of Penrith and shook it.” Picture: David Swift

“But then,” Fittler says, recalling the moment a hulking right arm came up and over his shoulder, “Mal told me how Ben Alexander had just died.”

And from there, well, Freddy struggles to find the words. “I was … ahh … stunned,” he says, softly.

“Completely stunned. I’m standing there among all my Australian teammates in this eastern suburbs nightclub … It was late, too — well after midnight — and I was just in shock.

A 1991 Penrith front row (from left) Paul Clark, Ben Alexander and Paul Dunn during a training session at Penrith Park. Alexander was killed the following year.

Police work to clear the scene of the fatal accident in which Ben Alexander died.

“Over the next couple of days, it really felt like someone picked up our little community of Penrith and shook it.” It still does.

It has been 26 years since a car accident tragically took the life of his great mate Ben ‘‘Boods’’ Alexander, a rising Penrith footballer and younger brother of premiership hero Greg Alexander. And Fittler’s pain is still an unseen, permanent scar.

Which is why the NSW Origin coach has agreed to front the Knock-On Effect — a State Government initiative highlighting not only the worrying spate of deaths on country roads, but the heavy impact each loss has on its community.

Fittler (left) and Alexander’s brother Greg (hand across face) help carry the coffin at Ben Alexander’s funeral.

When you see this sign post next to our stories here on the website or inside the newspaper, stop and think for a moment about how you can drive safer

Alexander was just 20 when he died.

This is a pain Fittler still lives. Same deal for fellow league legends such as Greg Alexander, Mark Geyer, even Panthers GM Phil Gould, who coached Penrith to that premiership only months before Alexander, aged 20, was killed.

“I remember at that particular time, we all felt bullet proof,” Fittler recalls.

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“As a group, we’d never dealt with loss like that.

“Ben’s death, it really shook us. I know personally, Ben and I, we … umm … we used to drive around a lot together. We were just two youngs blokes driving to training, the movies, bowling, whatever.

“We spent a lot of time together in the car.”

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All of which leaves Fittler carrying both pain, and questions. Like would he have been riding shotgun that night his mate, after a few beers at Penrith Leagues, took off for another party? “If I wasn’t with the Australian team, we would’ve been hanging out together, yeah,” Fittler says.

As a road safety ambassador, Fittler is encouraging all drivers to spend a few seconds thinking about every action they take. Picture: David Swift

“But that’s not the reality, is it? I was away with the Kangaroos, so it is what it is. It’s just tragic.’’

And that’s why Fittler is now encouraging all drivers to spend a few seconds thinking about every action they will make.

“There are people far more qualified to speak on this than me, but I do know first-hand that when somebody passes away on our roads, there’s a good friend left behind feeling like I did,” he said. “And that pain, there’s no tablet for it. There’s nothing.”

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

► CHAPTER ONE: Inside the squad that beat Sydney’s gangs

► CHAPTER TWO: The real-life police fight club

► CHAPTER THREE: The day bikies went too far

► CHAPTER FOUR: Bikie gangs: Warlords of the underworld

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