Richmond redeem AFL’s appalling handling of the Cousins case
Roar Pro
By David O\'Neill, 17 Dec 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- AFL, Ben Cousins, Richmond, Richmond Tigers
It’s been fascinating watching the Ben Cousin story from a distance, a consequence of living in London for the past six months. The amount of times I’ve read headlines that declare the ex-Eagle will receive a second chance has been matched only by the number of headlines that declare the opposite.
The news that he has been given that chance fills me with relief.
Thank God Richmond had the bravery to save the AFL’s appalling handling of the whole issue that scared fifteen other clubs off. The restrictions aside, the whole issue lacked any concrete requirements, not to mention the fact that Cousins has already served his one year ban.
It will only take one misdemeanor from Cosuins and Richmond, and many others, will be proven wrong. But doesn’t the game deserve to see a former champion try and get his career and life get back on track?
I am an un-apologetic sports fanatic and huge believer of its positive influence on society. If we can give Ben Cousins another shot then maybe we can start forgiving others in need of a second chance.
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Forgetmenot said | December 17th 2008 @ 9:21am | Report comment
Yes Cousins does have the right to be forgiven, but should it be at the expense of the game?
John Ryan said | December 17th 2008 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
Well from the looks of it dear old Ben has gone from the arms of colourful sporting people in Perth into the arms of the same type in Melbourne,leopards don,t change their spots
Michael C said | December 18th 2008 @ 10:54am | Report comment
Not sure how the AFL was deemed to be ‘appalling’ in their handling of the case.
There is always going to be an issue when existing structures are found wanting – - i.e. regarding Cousins having niether tested positive for WADA (we know that, they would have publicly outed him . . . and as a club B&F winner and Brownlow winner – - he would be target tested) and the AFL illicit testing regime (which has almost tripled the number of tests since Bens ‘time’ – so to speak).
Cousins was becoming a public train wreck – and yet the AFL was NOT in a position to do anything. Until they acted to deregister him – - the Cousins public train wreck had unfolded over a good period of time – - in the media. Not the fault of the AFL.
At the other end – the AFL HAVE allowed him to be re-registered and with fairly tight conditions. Perhaps too tight??? Is that the ‘appalling’ aspect of all this??
It depends how much we choose to speculate about both the ‘unknown unknowns’ and the ‘known unknowns’.
Firstly – we don’t know how much clubs may ONLY have been scared off by Cousins age and that in his last ‘crack’ at AFL he’d done a hammy.
We don’t know how much the ‘not for public consumption’ aspects of his re-hab and any issues there may have played a part,
We don’t know how much his character was just not appropriate for certain clubs (i.e. Collingwood for example already have their hands full – at least in a PR sense with Alan Didak and Heath Shaw this year after previous ‘issues’ with Chris Tarrant and others…………..btw – I respect that often these ‘issues’ are totally blown out of proportion in the media.).
St.Kilda may have been scared off by having taken a few too many recycled players of late – and in reality taking Cousins was at odds with their broad culling of their list prior to the draft.
Those clubs had to work out their own approach broader than Cousins alone.
Now – - the main question is – - not what skeletons from Cousins past might come to haunt him – - as, we can assume that there must be some. But – - the question is as to how well Cousins can forge his ‘new history’ going forward……………if soccer supporters can urge that the NSL be forgotten, then, Cousins fans will urge that his ‘Richmond’ history be regarded separate to his WCE history and his ‘dark years’ in between.
Shane Falco said | January 16th 2009 @ 11:39am | Report comment
I think you are spot on Dave, Richmond has this current atmosphere of mediocrity and it is about time they had a go at something. People forget that Ben Cousins was once a good young kid from a good family.