Wallace’s future largely in Cousins hands

 
Bruce Walkley Roar Pro

By , 17 Dec 2008 Bruce Walkley is a Roar Pro

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Shannon Hurn (L) & Ben Cousins (R) of the West Coast Eagles sing the song after the AFL Round 19 match between the Kangaroos and West Coast Eagles at the Telstra Dome. Slattery Image Group images

Richmond’s 11th-hour decision to pick up Ben Cousins in the pre-season draft will either leave the Tigers with egg all over their faces or give a number of other clubs a well-deserved kick up the Khyber.

St Kilda, Collingwood, Brisbane and North Melbourne that we know of, and probably a few more we don’t, will be left lamenting if Cousins defies all the naysayers and leads a Tigers charge into and during the finals, saving Terry Wallace’s neck in the process.

Most of them would have thought that, when the AFL Commission (rightly, I think) refused Richmond permission to put Graham Polak on the rookies list, Cousins would be, conveniently for them, left on the outer, given Richmond’s statements that they would be taking a youngster in the draft on Tuesday.

But the Tigers had a re-think on Monday night, caused largely by pressure from their fans, and threw Cousins the only lifeline he had left.

Perhaps the powers-that-be at Punt Road had heard about last weekend’s coup at the Parramatta rugby league club in Sydney, where the rank-and-file endorsed a group spearheaded by dual league and union international Ray Price in a bid to arrest a premiership drought dating back to 1986.

Richmond fans have been waiting even longer than their Eels counterparts – the champagne hasn’t flowed since the Tigers’ epic 81-point win over Collingwood in 1980.

So, given Wallace’s admission on Tuesday that Brisbane had pinched the Tigers’ last pick in the national draft from under their noses, and that there “wasn’t a standout” among the best of the draft leftovers who’d then been invited to train at Punt Road for a couple of weeks, it made a lot of sense to choose a ready-made senior player.

Cousins, suspended for bringing the game into disrepute through various unseemly actions, has served his time for the crime. He wants to play football again. He’s bloody good at it. Give him a go. The future is in his own hands, or more accurately mind, now.

Nobody at Richmond is under any illusions about the risk involved in selecting a confessed drug addict who has said himself that there are no guarantees he won’t go off the rails again – football manager

Craig Cameron admitted there was “still work to do” on Cousins’ rehabilitation.

Wallace said he believed the game, the players and the fans all deserved to see Cousins get another chance.

“Today’s decision to recruit Ben was based on all three of those things,” he said.

“This announcement won’t just excite Richmond fans. I believe the majority of supporters want to see Ben get another shot.”

Which certainly seemed to be the case among the fans, including most non-Tigers supporters, who expressed their views on talkback radio in the wake of the draft outcome, and more than 77 per cent of Fox Sports News viewers.

On the other side of the coin, a Sky News poll started off at 94 per cent against Richmond’s decision, although a few hours later it had softened to 50-50. Some people apparently have the perception that Cousins still has to deal with an attitude problem.

Time will tell.

If Cousins, who despite his confession has never tested positive for banned drugs, can survive three urine tests a week and four of the much more wide-ranging hair sample tests in a year, we’ll more than likely see Richmond playing in September.

If not, there’ll be plenty of people jumping on the “I-told-you-so” bandwagon.

I won’t be one of them. I’ll just be hoping Cousins can still conquer his demons in the future, even if he has to do it away from football. I’m more concerned about those anonymous players who have tested positive but are going unpunished.

We should also spare a thought for 18-year-old Kade Klemke, who missed out on selection in the national draft despite captaining the Murray Bushrangers to a premiership.

Klemke, who took that blow on the chin, was then touted as Richmond’s likely pick in the pre-season draft ahead of Cousins, despite being one of the players Wallace labelled on Tuesday as not being a standout while training with the Tigers.

It seems from Wallace’s comments that those touting Klemke were off the mark.

In fact, after taking Cousins, Richmond then selected four players, including Klemke’s Bushrangers teammate Andrew Browne, in the rookie draft that followed on Tuesday before Essendon finally took him as pick No.50.

Who knows, the Bombers might have found the best unheralded rookie since Dean Cox.

But on the other hand …

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