Ben Alexander (rugby league)

Australian rugby league footballer

Ben Alexander (13 September 1971 – 21 June 1992), also known by the nickname "Boods", was an Australian rugby league footballer who played as a or for the Penrith Panthers in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. He was the younger brother of his Penrith teammate Greg Alexander.

Alexander attended St Dominic's College, Penrith. Alexander was an unused reserve for Penrith's 1991 Grand Final win over the Canberra Raiders. Following the retirement of club veteran Royce Simmons at the end of the 1991 season, new recruit Brett Boyd was selected in the starting hooker position over Alexander to begin 1992. Earlier that evening, the Panthers' players had been presented with blazers commemorating their 1991 success. The crash occurred shortly after Alexander left the function with teammates Scott Murray, Luke Goodwin, and Glen Liddiard to attend a nightclub in Mount Druitt. it was later confirmed by the coroner that his blood alcohol content was 0.148, which is almost three times the legal limit of 0.05. Rumours that Alexander had been stopped by police shortly before the crash were denied.

A Requiem was held at St Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church in Penrith, with nearly 700 people in attendance inside the church and an estimated 4,000 people outside listening via loudspeaker. He was buried in Penrith Cemetery in Kingswood.

Despite Penrith's premiership success the previous year, there was reportedly significant discontent within the playing group during the 1992 season. Head coach Phil Gould's perceived disfavouring of Alexander was said to have been a factor. Alexander's death, along with other internal conflicts, is said to have destroyed the promise of continued success for the club in this period. The remainder of Penrith's 1992 season was disrupted as several players took extended periods of leave from training and playing duties. Brad Fittler withdrew from the n representative squad to play on 26 June 1992, while Mark Geyer (whose then fiancée, now wife is Alexander's sister Meagan) refused to train despite being issued an ultimatum, and left the club on 4 July amid other off field issues. Liddiard was reportedly pushed out of the club for unspecified reasons after missing training sessions. returned to the field on 2 August, playing off the interchange bench against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. Greg subsequently joined the Auckland Warriors for two seasons in 1995 as a way of dealing with his grief. He and Geyer both returned to Penrith in 1997. Gould told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020, "It's hard to talk about those days because we went from the highs to the lows very quickly. We won the club's first ever premiership then lost a special person in tragic circumstances the very next year. We were never the same people again." Liddiard told The Western Weekender in 2020 that he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder following the crash. In the 2010s and 2020s, Greg Alexander and Brad Fittler appeared in several road safety awareness campaigns reflecting on how Alexander's death impacted them. The Penrith Panthers' rookie of the year award is named for Alexander.