Dennis Bendall

Dennis Bendall

Personal information
Full name	Dennis Frederick Bendall
Born	(1956-10-01) 1 October 1956 (age 68)
Playing information
Position	Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1976–79 Balmain Tigers 68 24 0 0 72

Dennis Frederick Bendall (born 1 October 1956) is an Australian former rugby league player for the Balmain Tigers.

Born to a Japanese mother, Bendall went to school with Balmain halfback Greg Cox and was a Holy Cross junior. He made his first-grade debut for Balmain aged 19 in 1976 and during the season was a member of their Amco Cup-winning side. Mainly a centre, Bendall scored a career high 10 tries in 1977 and featured in two finals that year.[1]

Bendall's career was ended by a spinal injury suffered in the 1979 off-season. He had been looking after pupils from De La Salle Kingsgrove on an end-of-year camp to the Blue Mountains and was swinging off a rope into a pool when he slipped and hit his head on a submerged object, fracturing a vertebra.[2] Paralysed from the neck down, Bendall gradually regained movement and in 1988 was awarded $750,000 damages after suing the NSW government for danger warnings not being in place.[3]

References

1. "Balmain pick Pringle ahead of Lockwood". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 May 1976.
2. "Injury likely to end Bendall's career". The Canberra Times. 7 December 1979. p. 26 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "$750,000 awarded to injured footballer". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 October 1988.

External links

• Dennis Bendall at Rugby League Project