TWO years ago local rugby league protege Mitch Dening fractured two vertebrae and ruptured three discs in his neck in an horrific on- field accident although, in a testament to his passion and determination, the big centre took to the field for the first time since when he ran on for the West Lions at Scully Park last Sunday.
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Dening was a former Lions junior who was playing first grade well before he was 18.
He is no stranger to injury, suffering a badly-broken leg that kept him out of a Country jersey as a junior, before being picked up by the Gold Coast Titans program, only for a broken hand to sour that deal, which saw him then move into the Penrith Panthers program when the neck injury occurred playing for feeder club Windsor.
While it sounds bad, it could have been a lot worse.
The injury happened on the very same weekend Aberdeen footballer Alex McKinnon suffered a similar injury playing NRL for the Newcastle Knights that saw him permanently paralysed from the neck down.
“I had my doubts that I would ever get back on the field but I was lucky in a way,” Dening said.
“When it first happened the doctor said I was lucky to not be leaving in a wheelchair.”
Dening took that advice as motivation and, rather than shy away from the challenge, used it as motivation to get back on the field and get the ball in his hands.
“I had to get cleared by two separate doctors and was confident in what they said.
“I always had it in my mind that I wanted to get back.”
While that first goal has been met, the destructive ball runner’s ambitions of getting to the top level are not quite gone, although in the meantime he is more than happy to have set a new goal, a Wests premiership this season.
“It has just been great to get back on the paddock with the boys and team I played juniors with,” Dening said.
“It was frustrating running the water for them last year so it is good to be back.”
Wests face another challenge tomorrow when they take on Oxley Diggers in the Scully Park derby and Dening would like to see the side control the ball better than they did against the Blues last week.
“We were getting a good roll-on but weren’t finishing it,” he said.
“We will need better ball control on the third and fourth tackles to beat Diggers.”
“Our structure needs to be better and we want to stick to our strengths and get good ball to the halves.”
This afternoon, North Tamworth and Gunnedah will take advantage of having extra referees available, with no Second Division matches scheduled, when they clash at Jack Woolaston Oval at 2.30pm, while Armidale have forfeited their first grade clash at Narrabri after only having six players turn up to training through the week in a bad sign for the battling club.
