Wayne Bennett’s incredible reaction to seeing Alex McKinnon paralyzed during a tackle – and his inability to forgive the player at the center of the horrific accident – have been revealed in a new book about the supercoach.
The Knights player was paralyzed in March 2014 when a tackle involving Melbourne Storm players Jordan McLean and brothers Kenny and Jesse Bromwich led to him suffering fractures to his C4 and C5 vertebrae.
McKinnon, who was only 22 at the time, later sued McLean and the NRL.
Bennett was Knights coach at the time and in the hours that followed he endured one of the most horrific and intense experiences of his long career.
It culminated with him sitting in tears at the back of the team bus, cradled by the huge embracing arms of Newcastle striker Willie Mason.
Now, almost a decade later, the episode has been revealed in heartbreaking detail in journalist Andrew Webster’s book about Bennett, The Wolf You Feed.
Masters coach Wayne Bennett, now 73 (pictured), was in tears after Alex McKinnon was left paralyzed in a tackle that went horribly wrong and sought comfort in the arms of Willie Mason
Jordan McLean (pictured with the ball) played a role in the shocking accident – and Bennett has admitted he can’t forgive him
The heartbreaking events of one of the worst nights in football history are revealed in a new book about Bennett, The Wolf You Feed
It is also revealed that Bennett still has not forgiven one of the three men in that tackle: Jordan McLean.
McLean went low in the goal and appeared to lift McKinnon’s leg as he fended off the Bromwich brothers, who held him tight from above.
The combined weight of the tacklers caused them to fall on top of the Knight attacker, who fell forward onto his neck.
McKinnon was rushed to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and put into an induced coma – and Bennett emerged in tears after visiting him, saying: “When I came out I was heartbroken.”
“When the other players noticed that Bennett was crying, it brought tears to their hearts as well,” Webster wrote.
“Wayne is the Don, the godfather, the king,” Mason says. “If he’s upset, we’re upset.”
Bennett was quite upset, but he was only willing to give his players a brief glimpse into his emotional gut.
“It’s the most traumatic thing that’s ever happened to me outside of my own family,” Bennett said. ‘But I had to pull myself together, because those players needed me.’
Alex McKinnon in happier times when he was still married to his high school sweetheart Teigan Power. They broke up in January 2022
Today, Power is co-parenting while separated from McKinnon
As he lay silent and scared in his hospital bed that night, McKinnon had no idea how much of an impact his injury had had on the head coach.
It wasn’t until years later that he learned about Bennett’s moment of vulnerability in Mason’s arms — and he wasn’t surprised.
“After I got hurt, we started talking as friends,” McKinnon said in the book.
‘He was no longer my coach and he never would be again. He protects his vulnerability. He knows how powerful it is.
“He puts on masks for what needs to be done.”
The couple’s relationship may have evolved since the tragedy, but Bennett has remained steadfast in his decision not to let go of his feelings about McLean’s role in the accident.
“Deep down, in my heart, I still haven’t forgiven the player,” the current Dolphins coach said.
However, Bennett clearly thinks differently about the Bromwich brothers, who both play for him at Redcliffe.
McKinnon has forgiven McLean after admitting he felt “hatred” over the incident.
“It’s definitely something that has gone through my mind that I would like to sit down with him and have a different conversation,” he said in 2017.
McKinnon is pictured with his Newcastle teammates as he is honored at the Knights’ home ground just months after the life-changing injury
There were three men in the tackle the day McKinnon was paralyzed. Bennett has not forgiven Jordan McLean for his role, but he has clearly forgiven Jesse Bromwich (pictured with the coach this year) and his brother Kenny, both of whom play for him on the Dolphins team
McKinnon suffered another heartbreaking episode when his marriage to high school sweetheart Teigan Power ended in January 2022 after 12 years together.
After they split, both parties confirmed that the split was amicable and that they remained committed to co-parenting their children, twins Audrey and Violet, and eldest daughter Harriet.
Nearly a year after the breakup, they are still “very close,” according to McKinnon.
Bennett has also experienced a marital breakdown since that terrible night in 2014, leaving his 42-year-old wife, Trish, behind when he met Dale Cage.
Webster’s book also explores this softer, personal yet controversial side of the great coach’s life.
Cage — who was routinely labeled “busty blonde,” “secret blonde,” “vibrant blonde” and “Benny’s blonde bombshell” in early media coverage of the pair’s relationship — said she faced a backlash to abuse.
Bennett is pictured with his partner Dale Cage earlier this year
“I was called a homewrecker,” Cage says in the book. ‘I experienced a lot of abuse online at the time, and it still happens today.’
Bennett’s daughter, Beth – who is married to former league star and now Queensland Rugby League chief Ben Ikin – has sided with her mother over the split.
Cage, who is 22 years younger than Bennett, told Webster that her partner is a man with “very old-fashioned values” and not the arrogant figure sometimes portrayed in the media.
“We can spend days together and do or see nothing and not get tired of each other,” she said.
‘When we’re not together, he calls me three or four times a day. Ever since we’ve been together, he’s called me every morning and every evening.’