Ben Cousins’ return to football, for which the AFL Commission paved the way on Tuesday, highlights the urgent need for the sport to make drastic changes to its drug-testing policy.
The present “three strikes” system is clearly inadequate, with a reported six players who have returned two positive tests continuing to play the game and chief executive Andrew Demetriou admitting he doesn’t know who they are.
Cousins, a self-confessed drug addict, was thrown out of football 12 months ago for “bringing the game into disrepute” without ever testing positive under the AFL system.
The commission imposed severe conditions when it agreed to allow him to enter the draft on November 29, or the pre-season draft, including giving up to three urine samples a week and four hair samples a year. If he doesn’t comply he can be suspended immediately pending an investigation into the alleged breach.
All of which is understandable, even though the players’ association is uncomfortable with it.
As chairman Mike Fitzpatrick said, the commission had to consider the interests of the game and of the wider community, as well as Cousins’ future, which could be bright if he continues with what appears so far to be a successful attempt at rehabilitation.
St Kilda and Brisbane, and to a lesser extent North Melbourne, have expressed varying degrees of interest in recruiting him, with the Lions favourites if they decide to go ahead – they have an earlier draft pick than the Saints.
Cousins deserves to have this chance. He’s done his time, admitted his problem and is trying to overcome it. As Demetriou put it on Tuesday, “he’s making a real effort to rehabilitate himself”. Good luck to him if he can.
Good luck, too, to the club that takes the punt on him. It’s a big call. There are never any guarantees that a former drug addict won’t relapse, as Demetriou was at pains to point out.
But what about those half dozen players whose identity is so zealously kept quiet under the league’s policy, even from its chief executive?
They’ve all tested positive two more times than Cousins, but all that’s happened to them is that they’re being monitored under the AFL’s policy. We don’t know how, or how often, they are tested, so essentially they belong to a protected species that doesn’t include Cousins.
So what’s the solution? It’s two-pronged – more effective testing, and goodbye to the three-strikes policy.
The AFL should set up a system under which it picks three games every week and has tests done at random on a number of players (say four or five) from both teams.
That’s 24 or 30 players a week, not an unreasonable number to be within the AFL’s financial and logistic resources.
Players who test positive to performance-enhancing drugs should lose points under a scale to be drawn up similar to the one that governs on-field indiscretions, with suspensions to match.
Obviously previous offences would have to be taken into account when deciding the severity of each suspension, with serial offenders banished from the game altogether.
That’s what Cousins is facing if he slips up. And he won’t be under any illusions about that if and when he crosses the white line.
Fair enough. But he shouldn’t be Robinson Crusoe.
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