NRL 2023: Ex-Bears, Manly prop Don McKinnon reveals he didn’t pay fine for urinating on footy field at Lang Park in 1988

35 years ago Don McKinnon was fined $1000 for urinating on the field at Lang Park... or so we thought. Now the former Manly prop reveals how he secretly got off scot-free.

Manly Sea Eagles Don McKinnon urinating during the 1988 Broncos game

After 35 years, former Manly prop Don McKinnon has finally revealed how he secretly escaped scot-free from rugby league’s most famous pee.

And it can also be disclosed that McKinnon ended up in front of NSW Police’s internal affairs due to his infamous on-field leak, which made headlines around the world.

In his first game with Manly in 1988, McKinnon was fined $1000 by his club for urinating on-field during a match against Brisbane at Lang Park.

Or so we thought.

McKinnon - then a senior constable stationed at North Sydney Police Station - has now revealed he was exonerated in-confidence from paying the Manly-imposed fine by then club secretary Doug Daley.

Don McKinnon was the first rugby league player to be caught urinating on live television, during the Manly vs Broncos game at Lang Park in 1988.

“Doug said he’d told the newspapers that he’d fined me $1000 fine but then rang me the following Monday and said I didn’t have to pay it,” McKinnon said.

“Manly fined me so the NSWRL couldn’t then fine me – that would have been double jeopardy; ‘If we fine you, they can’t fine you.’

“I was on an incentive deal back then so $1000 would have put a dent in my contract. Doug probably thought it was funny as well. You couldn’t see any of my equipment, you could only see the torrent. I didn’t expose anything.

“Just about every guy I played football with said they did it once. I was just unlucky to be caught on live television. Nearly every function I go to it comes up. It was initially embarrassing and then it became funny - it’s the joke that never ends.

“When I was in the cops, I’d go to the remand centre at Long Bay to pick up or drop off the prisoners and they’d mention it.

35-years after the infamous Lang Park leak, McKinnon reveals he never paid the fine for the incident. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“I remember a family from Queensland was watching the game live on TV and were absolutely disgusted and wrote a letter to the Queensland cops, who sent it to NSW Police, and, because I was a copper, I was called over to internal affairs in the city where an Inspector named Carl Hermanson was going to counsel me.

“I walked in and we had a cup of tea. He said: ‘Look Don, someone has written a letter of complaint about you taking a leak on the field, you’re not going to do that again are you?’ I said: ‘No, mate.’ That was it. It wouldn’t have been the least bit newsworthy except I was an upstanding cop.

“It made the front pages of every paper in Australia. I had people send me newspaper clippings from New York, London and Rio de Janeiro. It was in the world news section.”

A former Norths and Kangaroo prop who once won handsomely on the Wheel of Fortune game show, McKinnon isn’t the only player to take a sneaky leak on the field but was the first to be captured by television cameras covering the game. It was a round one game, Brisbane’s first-ever in the NSWRL premiership.

Before joining Manly in 1988, McKinnon (ball) played 183 games for the North Sydney Bears. Picture: Will Burgess.

The incident came in the first half, with Brisbane ahead 6-2, after Manly prop Ian Gately was penalised for a high tackle. Broncos skipper Wally Lewis elected to take the penalty goal.

“It was a really hot day in March and the trainers were running around saying we had to get the fluids into us. I drank a gallon of Staminade and water before we went out,” said McKinnon, now 68 and still living on Sydney’s northern beaches.

“After about 20 minutes, naturally I was busting to go to the toilet, and there was no interchange back then, but there was a break in play when the referee, Mick Stone, was cautioning (Manly prop) Ian Gately.

“So I thought: ‘Here’s my chance.’ So I had a bit of a wee down the leg but, unfortunately, the caution didn’t last long enough and Mick ran across to where the offence took place and blew the penalty – and I was standing right behind him. I always blamed Mick Stone.

McKinnon was also a carry-over champion on Wheel of Fortune.

“The game was televised live in Sydney and Brisbane and there was no editing, of course. At halftime, one of the cameramen told ‘Crusher’ (teammate Noel Cleal) that they filmed me having a leak on the field.

“I never thought anymore of it until I flew home and there was a knock on the door at 7.30 the next morning and it was a journo asking: ‘What have you got to say about urinating on the football field?’

“My mum (Laurie) was 74 at the time and dad would have been 78. Mum thought it was funny but Dad (Harry, a former North Sydney player, coach and president) wasn’t really happy. Dad had been a rugby league figure for a long time and may have been a little embarrassed by it.

“Dad said: ‘You should be banned for life’. I said: ‘Dad, I’m 33, I couldn’t care less if they did bar me for life’.”